Factors Influencing Creativity in Virtual Design Teams: An Interplay between Technology, Teams and Individuals

Abstract

Creativity is a topic of interest across numerous disciplines and areas of study. Creativity constitutes a challenging aspect of engineering design, and scholars in the field of management claim that the increase in virtual teamwork calls for research as to how virtual configurations alter some of the management practices based on the collocated workplace. By reviewing the different literatures, we posit a knowledge gap regarding creativity in the virtual design context, where varying degrees of virtuality are likely to exert an influence on creativity. In our quest to start bridging this gap, we pursued an exploratory case study with a student-based virtual design team project, known as the European Global Product Realization (EGPR). Thirty-nine interview extracts, covering most participants, along with non-participant observation and document review, gave us insights into the nature of the project, the participants' perceptions of creativity, and their experience of designing in virtual teams. In all, our study unearths and discusses a number of factors -and the extent to which -they are found to influence creativity in virtual design teams. The study has cross-domain relevance from those interested in the management of virtual teams through to those looking at creativity and design.

Antecedents of organizational creativity: drivers, barriers or both?

“…Geographic dispersion, too, can exacerbate the group members' differences and cause feelings of isolation or disappointment (Chamakiotis et al, 2013. ) The second theme, group management, includes factors such as the group's selfmanagement (Axtell et al, 2000;Isaksen and Lauer, 2002;Kylén and Shani, 2002;Björkman, 2004), group leadership (Hemlin, 2009;Chamakiotis et al, 2013), organizational encouragement (Castiglione, 2008;Hemlin, 2009), support for innovation (Axtell et al, 2000;Hemlin, 2009), and feedback (Zhou and George, 2001;Hemlin, 2009). Group management implies that the group should be able to manage itself effectively, whereas organization-level management should be appropriate in terms of allowing and facilitating the group's work.…”

Leading the creative process: the case of virtual product design

“…Several empirical studies exist that show that VPTs are set up in order to promote creativity, such as to develop new and novel product designs (e.g. Schmidt et al ., ; Nemiro, ; Chamakiotis et al ., ), while, more recently, Gilson et al . () have asserted that creativity in VPTs deserves further research.…”

“…In a similar vein, Chang () discusses how anonymity and structure affect creativity in VPTs, while Chamakiotis et al . () explain how individual‐, team‐ and technology‐related factors influence creativity in VPTs. Kratzer et al .…”

“…Amabile, ; Andriopoulos, ). Within the context of VPTs, researchers have looked at factors influencing creativity (Ocker, ; Chang, ; Chamakiotis et al ., ) as well as the stages of the creative process (i.e. idea generation, development, finalisation/closure and evaluation; Nemiro, ).…”

Group Climate and Creativity in Temporary Innovation Camp Settings

“…It thereby might be expected that the antecedent of group creativity in temporal settings differ from those in more long‐lasting contexts. Despite the few exceptions of Bakker et al () and the studies of group creativity in temporary virtual teams (Ocker, ; Chamakiotis, Dekoninck & Panteli, ), there seem to be no other published quantitative studies on the antecedents of group creativity in temporary non‐virtual innovation settings. Albeit being temporary, virtual groups are grounded by computer‐mediated communication and therefore group interaction is fundamentally different from that experienced by non‐virtual, face‐to‐face groups.…”