Team creativity and innovation: Importance and directions

For the past two decades, creativity and innovation have been viewed by researchers as critical to organizational success and survival. Understanding the factors that facilitate or inhibit creativity and innovation at the individual level has been the focus of much of the research in the area. In recent years, research in organizational psychology and management has focused on understanding creativity and innovation in teams. However, while earlier work on teams and creativity focused on the team as a context variable, and individual creativity as the outcome, more recent research emphasizes creativity as the outcome. This chapter provides an overview of the state of research and practice as it relates to team creativity and innovation in organizations.