Innovation in multidisciplinary teams: The moderating role of transformational leadership in the relationship between professional heterogeneity and shared mental models

Research on the effectiveness of multidisciplinary teams has been equivocal. In an attempt to understand when a team's professional heterogeneity (PH) is positively related to innovation (INN), we proposed an integrative model in which shared mental models (SMMs) are theorized as a mechanism to...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:European journal of work and organizational psychology 2015-09, Vol.24 (5), p.678-692
Main Authors: Reuveni, Yehudit, Vashdi, Dana Rachel
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Cognitive models
Field study
Innovation
Innovations
Leadership
Multidisciplinary teams
R&D
Research & development
Shared mental models
Teams
Transformational leadership
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Summary:Research on the effectiveness of multidisciplinary teams has been equivocal. In an attempt to understand when a team's professional heterogeneity (PH) is positively related to innovation (INN), we proposed an integrative model in which shared mental models (SMMs) are theorized as a mechanism to leverage INN in highly multidisciplinary teams. In addition, we claim that transformational leadership (TL), which is usually regarded as a factor contributing to team effectiveness, will attenuate the effect of teams' PH on team SMM. In a field study of 55 R&D teams in Israel, we found that SMMs mediated the relationship between PH and INN, and that TL moderated the relationship between PH and Team SMM. We discuss the theoretical and practical implication of these findings.
ISSN:1359-432X
1464-0643
DOI:10.1080/1359432X.2014.1001377