Intercultural relationships and creativity: Current research and future directions

Publication Type

Book Chapter

Publication Date

1-2018

Abstract

In the global economy, individuals have to engage in cross-cultural interactions when tasked to develop creative new products or services. Research on the effects of cultural diversity on creativity, however, has been equivocal. One stream of research champions that cultural diversity in relationships broadens ideas and resources for creative thinking, whereas skeptics counter that intercultural tensions and conflicts hurt rather than help. This chapter discusses both sides of the argument. We examine the effects of intercultural relationships on creativity from three perspectives: (a) how a culturally diverse social environment (including social networks) influences individuals’ creativity; (b) how individuals can successfully engage in intercultural dyadic creative collaboration; and (c) how intercultural relationships influence creativity of multicultural teams. In addition, we investigate the underlying mechanisms and boundary conditions of how intercultural relationships impact creative performance. We conclude by integrating ideas from existing research and proposing new research directions.

Keywords

Creativity, Cultural diversity, Intercultural relations, Multicultural networks, Teams

Discipline

Human Resources Management | Organizational Behavior and Theory

Research Areas

Organisational Behaviour and Human Resources

Publication

Handbook of culture and creativity: Basic processes and applied innovations

Editor

Angela K. Y. Leung, Letty Kwan & Shyhnan Liou

First Page

207

Last Page

238

ISBN

9780190455675

Identifier

10.1093/oso/9780190455675.003.0009

Publisher

Oxford University Press

City or Country

New York

Additional URL

https://doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780190455675.003.0009

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