Fusing Creativity: Cultural Metacognition and Teamwork in Multicultural Teams - Essay Example

? Article review The paper “Fusing Creativity: Cultural Metacognition and Teamwork in Multicultural Teams” tries to analyze the impact of fusion of culture and interaction between the members in a multicultural team on the creativity of the solution they provide. The literature review section of the paper has done a comprehensive research on many of the previous works. In their literature review the authors have taken a step-by-step approach towards the problem. They have defined a team and their definition of the multicultural teams. The predominant stress has been given towards the regional difference of the person for the convenience of the research. In this section they have also tried to state the nature of their research. In the next section the researchers have tried to identify the impact of teamwork on the creativity of the output. They have shown how previous researches have emphasized the importance of different types of discussion between the team and how that enriches the outcome. These practices ultimately enhance the final decision obtained. They have also discussed about the importance of discussion in a group and the freedom and willingness of each member to share their novel ideas in reaching a creative solution. In the next section the authors have discussed the previous researches on the variety of ideas that can come to the table in due to the cultural difference of the team and their resultant perception, visualization and conceptualization of their role and the problem. The nature of interaction of the members of a multi-cultured team has been discussed with clarity. They have also considered the researches on the importance of fusion in such a team against the dominance of a subgroup for the creativity of a team. The other principle considered is the importance of participation and fusion. The authors have considered the salient concepts in the previous researches though criticism in the form of weaknesses or lack in the considered literatures has not been done. The paper has also restricted the definition of cultural difference to regional difference. The authors have pointed out this limitation. (Crotty, & Brett 4 -7) The research questions were based on the creativity, fusion in the team, cultural metacognition and other control variables. The question for measuring creativity was inspired from the Chatman’s question of 1998. However in this research the question have been further developed. The researchers have created two questions to address the novelty of the solution and the utility of the solution for the organization. The questions to evaluate fusion were generated from a pilot project conducted in an MBA classroom. In this section the questions asked were related to the norms and practices of the team based on their cultural difference and the degree to which the different members of the team gel with each other. The questions tried to understand the participation of the team in the decision making process and the level of consensus reached. The questions for cultural metacognition were adopted from the Earley and Ang’s questions in 1993. They were designed to understand the consciousness of the member of the existent cultural difference in his team. They also tried to measure the degree of adjustment of the person and their efforts to take into account the cultural difference of their colleagues. For the control variables the questions were modeled on the Gladstein scale that was created by Vegt, Emans and Viliert in 2003. The questions tried to understand the degree of satisfaction and comfort of the members working in a multicultural team. Some of the questions were created on the basis of a pilot project. The research also considered other questions to test the other variables like the age, sex, number of members in the team, the mode of communication, the number of times the team met each year and the responsibilities of the team. The researchers simulated multicultural teams with the help of students in an MBA classroom. (Crotty, & Brett 12 -13) The research was carried out based on primary source of data. The participation of the sample units was from different teams based in a number of organizations. All the teams surveyed fitted well into the definition of multicultural team provided by the research. On an average the number of team members was 10.7 which is a satisfactory figure. The sample was diverse in the sense that the teams came from different departments of the corporate structure including information technology, human resource, business development, marketing and sales etc. The team members also had a considerable diversity in terms of their nationality though half of the sample came from United States. The sex ratio was also satisfactory. There was fairly good response from the team. However the method of sampling suggests that it was not completely random. The sample was sufficiently fragmented to highlight the various kinds of diversities including nationality, sex, team operation and organization. The study was conducted through the Internet. The method of survey was the questionnaire method. The questionnaires were sent to the individuals belong to the sample. The individuals were kept anonymous. This reduced the bias of sampling by increasing the chance of an individual to express truthfully. However there is no mention about the method of selection of the sample units. If the sample units have been selected based on judgments then it can lead to a bias. Ideally there should be random sampling. (Crotty, & Brett 11 – 12) In this paper the researchers have considered primary source of data. Another method of research is considering the primary source of data. However considering the highly specific nature of the research it is doubtful if the relevant data could have been obtained from a secondary source. Though collection of primary data leads to more expenditure of resources like money and time, it helps in researches that are more fundamental in nature. The researchers could have considered previous researches that have dealt with similar questions. But there always remains a doubt about the availability of data. Therefore primary source of data was a necessary for the research. Crotty, Susan K. & Jeanne M. Brett. Fusing Creativity: Cultural Metacognition and Teamwork in Multicultural Teams, October 2009, Working Paper Series, No. 09-05, Dubai School of Government Read More