Team gender composition affects how teams creatively respond to inter-team competition

What is it about?

Building on social role theory, we propose that having groups compete against one another stimulates the creativity of groups that are composed largely (or exclusively) of men but is detrimental to the creativity of groups that are composed largely (or exclusively) of women. We tested this idea in 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 largely showed the predicted negative effects on the creativity of groups composed of women. Results of Study 1 also revealed that within-group collaboration mediated the 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.

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Why is it important?

Beliefs in the virtues of competition are among the most widely shared, deeply held, and long-standing assumptions in most Western societies. Competition is considered essential to the efficient allocation of scarce resources and, more importantly, to fueling creativity and innovation. Given the rising popularity of teams in the production of novel ideas, contests between teams in an effort to ignite the creative spark necessary for innovation are ubiquitous. The last 50 years have witnessed a shift in the demographic composition of the workforce—a dramatic increase in women’s labor force participation rates. According to recent projections, participation of women in the labor force in the United States will continue to be faster than that of men. The goal of the present research was to examine the implications of this demographic shift for the effectiveness of intergroup competition as a vehicle to stimulate creativity in groups. Our study is the first to systematically examine the effectiveness of intergroup competition as a vehicle for promoting the creativity of groups with different sex compositions. In addition, by examining within-group collaboration as a mediator, we solidify our understanding of the processes that shape creativity in groups. Finally, by testing our hypotheses in both experimental and field settings, we demonstrate that our results are replicable and therefore likely to generalize across settings and samples and, as such, are particularly relevant for managerial practice.