How does functional diversity lead to team innovation? The roles of information elaboration and shared meta-knowledge

Abstract

Optimal conditions for team innovation are critical for organizations to adapt to current fastpaced market. This study examines the knowledge resources of teams, through investigating how functional diversity leads to team innovation, through potential mediation of information elaboration and moderation of shared meta-knowledge. The team level analysis conducted with 37 teams revealed a significant negative relationship between functional diversity and information elaboration, and a significant positive relationship between information elaboration and team innovation. However, the results do not show a mediating effect of information elaboration or moderating effect of shared meta-knowledge. Additionally, at the individual level, results show a significant relationship between shared meta-knowledge and team innovation, mediated by information elaboration. The implications, regarding the variables that reflect the knowledge integration perspective of team innovation, have been discussed to gain a better understanding of an innovative team’s cognition and to guide future research. On a practical level, teams are advised to incorporate information elaboration as a tangible step into innovation processes, highlight pro-diversity beliefs and contributions by each subgroup to minimize negative effects of functional diversity and support development of shared metaknowledge within the team.