Facilitating or inhibiting? The double-edged effects of faultlines interaction on group creativity – evidence from China

Abstract

Purpose

The current research studies are inconclusive about the positive or negative effects of group faultlines, especially in the Chinese context. To address this issue, this study aims to adopt an interactive perspective to explore the group interaction process. Specifically, this study proposes a new construct “interactive faultlines” to integrate overall faultlines and separate faultlines, and based on categorization-elaboration model (CEM), develops an integrated moderated mediation model to examine when and how interactive faultlines facilitate or inhibit group creativity.

Design/methodology/approach

This study tests the model with the samples of 405 employees from 95 groups in China, carrying out confirmatory factor analysis, regression analysis and process.

Findings

This study finds that the indirect effect of informational faultlines on group creativity through information elaboration is positive when social faultlines are low, but negative when social faultlines are high.

Practical implications

This research provides some practical implications on how to manage group compositions and coordinate group interaction process to make full use of the potential benefits of diverse information and avoid the possible detriment from social categorization.

Originality/value

This study adopts an interactive perspective to consider informational faultlines and social faultlines simultaneously, and constructs a focal concept “interactive faultlines.” Based on CEM, it also offers a fine-grained picture of the double-edged relationship between informational faultlines and group creativity by identifying social faultlines as a moderator and information elaboration as a mediator, which advances knowledge about the linkages between interactive faultlines and group creativity. Particularly, this study is rooted in the Chinese context and brings in indigenous attributes derived from an analysis of Eastern cultures to elucidate the particular effect of informal social connections.

Citation

Chen, H., Liang, Q.-z. and Zhang, Y. (2019), "Facilitating or inhibiting? The double-edged effects of faultlines interaction on group creativity – evidence from China", Chinese Management Studies, Vol. 13 No. 4, pp. 802-819. https://doi.org/10.1108/CMS-06-2018-0563