Publication Type

Journal Article

Version

publishedVersion

Publication Date

5-2014

Abstract

Building on social role theory, we extend a contingency perspective on intergroup competition proposing that having groups compete against one another is stimulating to the creativity of groups composed largely or exclusively of men but detrimental to the creativity of groups composed largely or exclusively of women. We tested this idea in two separate studies: a laboratory experiment (Study 1) and a field study (Study 2). Study 1 showed that competition had the expected positive effects on the creativity of groups composed mostly or exclusively of men and produced the predicted negative effects on the creativity of groups composed of women, even though the latter effects emerged at the high end of the competition spectrum and for sex-homogeneous groups only. Results of Study 1 also revealed that within-group collaboration mediated the joint effects of competition and sex composition on group creativity. Study 2 replicated the results of Study 1 in a field setting involving research and development teams. We discuss the implications of these findings for theory and practice. © 2014 INFORMS.

Keywords

Collaboration, Competition, Creativity, Groups, Sex composition, Social role theory

Discipline

Human Resources Management | Organizational Behavior and Theory

Research Areas

Organisational Behaviour and Human Resources

Publication

Organization Science

Volume

25

Issue

3

First Page

892

Last Page

908

ISSN

1047-7039

Identifier

10.1287/orsc.2013.0878

Publisher

INFORMS (Institute for Operations Research and Management Sciences)

Additional URL

https://doi.org/10.1287/orsc.2013.0878

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