Foreign Language Use, Virtuality, and the Creative Performance of Dyadic Teams

Abstract

Firms rely on their employees’ creativity to drive innovation and secure competitive advantages. In the modern workplace, team members often collaborate in a non-native language and interact virtually rather than face-to-face. Yet, the effects of foreign language use and virtuality on the creative performance of teams have not been fully explored. The present study addresses this issue using an experiment with 95 dyadic teams, which we randomly assigned to either a foreign or a native language condition. In line with our theoretical reasoning, we find that foreign language use is detrimental for team creative performance, an effect that can be alleviated by team members’ foreign language proficiency. We further observe that, at least in the foreign language condition, interacting virtually rather than face-to-face can stimulate team creative performance. Virtuality may thus help alleviate some globalization-induced challenges to nurturing creative performance.