both inside and outside of work.50 For creativity toflourish
it is important that the team does not have too much structure or bureaucraticred-tape to get through. A study of 100 research and development (R&D) teams foundthat a teamâs ability to improvise is enhanced by knowledge sharing and the minimumamount of structure needed to manage the innovation process. Team improvisation can beassessed by asking the following questions:Is the team good at dealing spontaneously with unanticipated problems?Is the team capable of responding extemporaneously to unexpected opportunities?Does the team have a strong capability to creatively improvise?51In addition to knowledge sharing within teams
it is also important that teams shareknowledge with other teams in the organization to enhance innovation. This helps avoidthe problem of âreinventing the wheelâ but also creates a culture of innovation wherediverse knowledge is shared throughout the entire organization.52 In a study of 397 R&Demployees (consisting of 68 teams)
benevolent R&D leaders who treated their team like afamily facilitated innovative behavior at the individual level through creating strongidentifications with the team. These leaders also enhanced cross-team innovative behaviorat the team level via identification with the R&D department.53 Thus
leaders influenceboth within-team and cross-team innovative behavior.As this review has shown
team effectiveness has many dimensions and includesperformance
learning
and innovation. A review of the research on team effectivenessconcluded that team performance is the most commonly studied outcome. However
recentstudies have considered team viability to be an important indicator of effectiveness. Teamviability is a collective sense of belonging similar to team cohesion.54 Cohesion is theâteam spiritâ experienced in high-performing teams and is discussed next.485
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