Creativity & Control in Virtual Teams: Challenging the Paradox

Abstract

The increasing use of collaborative technologies has seen huge growth in the use of dispersed and virtual teams in recent years. Virtual teams are designed to deliver unique flexibility by enabling the rapid formation and disbanding of teams using the best talent available from anywhere in the organisation, or anywhere in the world (Lipnack & Stamps, 1997). Another reported benefit of this new team type is its ability to combine a wide range of cultural, experiential, and industry-based perspective into a 'melting pot' of creativity and innovation. However, because interactions between team members are often electronic and sporadic, and the team members themselves are dispersed, issues can arise over how managerial control can be maintained while retaining creative 'flow'. Group-level research into creativity has suggested that there may be a trade-off between control and creativity (Nemeth & Staw, 1989). However, with a lack of evidence to draw upon, many organisations revert to employing traditional managerial controls in a virtual setting, risking the creative outputs that teams were established to achieve. This thesis describes and rejects the apparent paradox of creativity and control in virtual teaming. Using the survey responses of 194 virtual team workers, the impact of traditional managerial controls on creative behaviours is examined. Surprisingly, training and close supervision were found to be insignificant to creative behaviours of virtual team members. Traditional formal controls, such as policies, procedures, and codes of conduct, were also found to be unrelated to creative behaviours. Individual influence on team processes and outcomes, reward expectancy, rewards for creativity, and leader dominance were all found to be positively related to individual creative behaviours. Findings from this research suggest that managerial control in virtual teams can enhance creative behaviours, rather than stifling them. Geographic dispersion does not appear to influence relationships between control elements and creative behaviours, suggesting that traditional managerial controls may have a place in the virtual environment. Implications of these results for virtual team managers are discussed, and future research directions are outlined.