TY - JOUR
T1 - Facilitating creativity in interdisciplinary design teams using cognitive processes
T2 - A review
AU - Reiter-Palmon, Roni
AU - Leone, Salvatore
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© IMechE 2018.
PY - 2019/1/1
Y1 - 2019/1/1
N2 - Interdisciplinary, or cross-functional, teams have become quite common for engineering and design. Many of today’s scientific breakthroughs occur in interdisciplinary teams, as the increasingly complex problems facing society often cannot be addressed by single disciplines alone. However, fostering creative and productive collaboration in interdisciplinary teams is no easy challenge. First, leading creative teamwork is difficult by itself. Second, many of the factors that impede teams and teamwork in general are exacerbated in interdisciplinary teams as a result of differences between team members. In this paper, we will review the team creativity psychology and management literature, and discuss how cognitive processes that facilitate creativity can be used by engineering and design teams. Specifically, past research has shown problem construction that allows teams to develop a structure to guide solving ambiguous problems. Further, problem construction allows teams to develop a shared understanding of the problem which aids in later processes. While there is significant research on idea generation, results suggest that teams may not be better at this than individuals. In this review, we discuss how idea generation in teams can mitigate some of the issues that lead to this effect. Finally, team research has only recently began to determine what factors influence idea evaluation and selection for implementation.
AB - Interdisciplinary, or cross-functional, teams have become quite common for engineering and design. Many of today’s scientific breakthroughs occur in interdisciplinary teams, as the increasingly complex problems facing society often cannot be addressed by single disciplines alone. However, fostering creative and productive collaboration in interdisciplinary teams is no easy challenge. First, leading creative teamwork is difficult by itself. Second, many of the factors that impede teams and teamwork in general are exacerbated in interdisciplinary teams as a result of differences between team members. In this paper, we will review the team creativity psychology and management literature, and discuss how cognitive processes that facilitate creativity can be used by engineering and design teams. Specifically, past research has shown problem construction that allows teams to develop a structure to guide solving ambiguous problems. Further, problem construction allows teams to develop a shared understanding of the problem which aids in later processes. While there is significant research on idea generation, results suggest that teams may not be better at this than individuals. In this review, we discuss how idea generation in teams can mitigate some of the issues that lead to this effect. Finally, team research has only recently began to determine what factors influence idea evaluation and selection for implementation.
KW - Review
KW - creative problem solving
KW - creativity
KW - design
KW - engineering
KW - innovation
KW - interaction
KW - interdisciplinary teams
KW - teams
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85045457749&partnerID=8YFLogxK
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/citedby.url?scp=85045457749&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1177/0954406217753236
DO - 10.1177/0954406217753236
M3 - Review article
AN - SCOPUS:85045457749
SN - 0954-4062
VL - 233
SP - 385
EP - 394
JO - Proceedings of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers, Part C: Journal of Mechanical Engineering Science
JF - Proceedings of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers, Part C: Journal of Mechanical Engineering Science
IS - 2
ER -