Members’ Openness to Experience and Teams’ Creative Performance

Small Group Research first published on August 18, 2010

by Marieke Catharine Schilpzand, David M. Herold & Christina E. Shalley

Abstract

Team composition based on personality has been found to have important effects on team outcomes. However, little is still known about the effect of team personality composition on team creativity. To this end, this study examined the relationship of team members’ openness to experience and team creativity. Results from a study with 31 graduate student teams suggest that openness to experience is significantly related to team creativity. Furthermore, teams that are diverse on openness to experience have the highest levels of team creativity, as long as they have some team members that are low on openness and others that have a moderate level of openness to experience.