Inspired and Appreciated by the Group

The processes of creative production and creativity recognition are both understood to be central to the dynamics of creativity. Nevertheless, they are generally seen by creativity researchers as theoretically unrelated. In contrast, social identity theorizing suggests a model of creativity in which groups play a role both in inspiring creative acts and in determining the reception they receive. More specifically, this approach argues that shared social identity (or lack of it) motivates individuals to rise to particular creative challenges and provides a basis for certain forms of creativity to be recognized (or disregarded). This chapter explicates the logic underlying the social identity approach and summarizes some of the key evidence that supports it.

Diversity and Group Creativity

It is often presumed that diversity of group members will enhance group creativity. However, the evidence for this has been mixed. This chapter summarizes the state of the science in this area and provides an integrative framework based on the categorization elaboration model of van Knippenberg and colleagues. It focuses on the factors that influence the expression of diverse perspectives, attention to such expressions, the elaboration of the shared ideas, and how these lead to creative outcomes. It evaluates the importance of identity factors in this process and discusses the potential impact on both divergent and convergent creativity. It notes some of the gaps in the literature and suggests future directions.

Design and Group Creativity

Design communities in engineering and other disciplines have a practical reason for caring about group creativity. People employed in these areas have to generate creative solutions routinely, and they often must do so in a group. As a result, research in these areas has focused on processes to improve group creativity. This chapter explores techniques for generating problem statements and solutions in groups that have emerged from this literature. It also examines computer-based methods of problem solving that groups can use to enhance the ideas that arise from these group processes. This work has expanded the range of elements explored in studies of group creativity. Although theoretical studies of creativity can be useful in uncovering underlying mental processes, design development requires useful end products. The focus of this research on techniques that enhance creativity in design provides an opportunity to link this literature with the broader literature on individual and group creativity.

Creativity in Sociocultural Systems

Although psychologists typically see creativity as an individual-level event, sociologists and cultural anthropologists are more likely to view it as a sociocultural phenomenon. This phenomenon takes place at the level of relatively large and enduring collectives, such as cultures, nations, and even whole civilizations. This chapter reviews the extensive research on such macro-level creativity. The review begins with a historical overview before turning to the cross-sectional research on the creative Ortgeist, a subject that encompasses the factors that influence the relative creativity of both preliterate cultures and entire modern nations. From there the chapter turns to role of the Zeitgeist in affecting the creativity of civilizations across time—the rise and fall of creative activity. This research examines both quantitative and qualitative causes that operate both short- and long-term.

Information Processing, Motivation, and Group Creativity

According to an information processing perspective, group creativity results from the combination of individual resources into a (creative) group product. This involves information processing at the individual as well as the group level (by means of communication). This chapter first discusses how individual-level information processing is affected by group interaction in terms of both cognitive interference and cognitive stimulation. It then discusses (1) the evidence linking group-level information processing (i.e., communication, information sharing, collaborative problem solving) to group creativity and (2) the factors that stimulate or reduce group-level information processing. It is argued that many research findings can be explained by assuming that group creativity involves motivated information processing of members.

Innovation in the Arts

The filmmaking creative process is staged and task specific, and the success of a film is dependent on filmmaker’s working collaboratively and creatively, in small and large teams, to complete discrete tasks that are frequently iterative and recursive. These tasks are enabled and constrained by situational variables including financial, logistical, technological, aesthetic, and editorial, and the successful completion of the filmmaking tasks is dependent on a filmmaker’s creativity. This practice-led research presents an innovative methodological case study that captures the creative and collaborative activities of a documentary filmmaker and illustrates how filmmakers collaborate with other filmmakers and the community to create a film. Four collaborative principles are identified that describe how filmmakers achieve their goals; the principles reflect group approaches to creative filmmaking practices and, more broadly, the collective nature of arts practice.

How Science Teams Deal with Uncertainty

This chapter reviews prior and new research on the unique strategies that multidisciplinary teams possess for dealing with uncertainty. In particular, it summarizes recent findings from research on the 2004 NASA mission that sent two rovers on opposite sides of Mars so that scientists on Earth could determine whether there was evidence for liquid water. Using natural audiovideo data from these scientists’ task-relevant conversations, researchers were able to explore novel cross-psychology questions about how this exemplary multidisciplinary science team dealt with uncertainty. The findings in concert with prior research on teams and problem solving suggest that in knowledge diverse teams, disagreement can uncover latent uncertainty between individuals, whereas analogies can serve to reduce uncertainty. These findings advance understanding of how multidisciplinary science teams succeed, and point to the value of studying real-world cases for uncovering novel connections between social and cognitive processes in teams.

Effective Brainstorming

This chapter reviews the extensive literature on brainstorming to determine potential best practices. It presents the major theoretical perspectives and highlights their relationship to the various factors that influence the effectiveness of brainstorming. It examines the utility of verbal brainstorming, electronic brainstorming, and brainwriting for generation of creative ideas. It evaluates the effects of instructions, breaks, facilitators, training, tapping semantic categories, turnover, and group size. It also notes the gaps that exist in the literature and future research directions. It is clear that there is now considerable evidence to guide effective brainstorming and produce performances in groups that exceed those of comparable sets of solitary brainstormers.

Innovation in Work Teams

Researchers and practitioners have recognized the importance of team innovation for organizational effectiveness. This chapter provides an overview of the factors that influence team innovation using an input–process–output structure. It identifies factors relating to the team and organizational context as inputs for various team processes that translate into innovative outputs. It further suggests that leadership acts as a contingency factor that facilitates the transition of input factors into team processes. Highlighting the often-overlooked difference between idea generation and idea implementation as part of team innovation, it discusses which input factors and processes are more likely to exert more influence over idea generation and/or idea implementation. It concludes by emphasizing the importance of implementing creative ideas for achieving innovation success.

Affective Influences on Creativity in Teams

Both affect and creativity have been recognized as constructs operating at multiple levels. This chapter addresses the complicated relationship of affect to creativity at three levels: within-person over time, in dyads, and in groups. First, it provides an integrative review of affect-creativity relationships at each level, concluding that the different thinking styles triggered by positive and negative affect may both be helpful for creativity. It suggests that effects may depend on stage in the creative process as well as diversity in affect within a dyad or group. Second, it draws on regulatory focus theory to provide a more task-specific typology of affect and explore likely effects on creativity. Specifically, it develops propositions to explain why and how promotion-focused affect (e.g., excitement) and prevention-focused affect (e.g., worry) may come together to foster creativity in different stages of the creative process at the within-person, dyad, and group levels. It concludes with questions for future research at each level.