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Creativity in Multidisciplinary New Product Development Teams
Author(s) -
Vissers Geert,
Dankbaar Ben
Publication year - 2002
Publication title -
creativity and innovation management
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.148
H-Index - 60
eISSN - 1467-8691
pISSN - 0963-1690
DOI - 10.1111/1467-8691.00234
Subject(s) - creativity , new product development , multidisciplinary approach , teamwork , product (mathematics) , quality (philosophy) , knowledge management , computer science , process management , psychology , business , marketing , sociology , management , epistemology , social psychology , economics , mathematics , social science , geometry , philosophy
New product development is usually teamwork. Product development teams are created that are cross–functional, representing different functional units, or multidisciplinary, involving several disciplines, or both. In any case, conceiving and developing new products is a joint effort, which means that the traditional view of creativity may not apply. This view, characterized by a focus on individuals as agents of creativity and by the assumption that creativity is a unilateral quality, not a reciprocal or interactive phenomenon, continues to be influential. As a result, much of the dynamics of ‘newness–generation’ and ‘newness–reception’ in organizations remains to be studied. This paper describes the organization of new product development in a number of medium–sized companies. It will discuss the theoretical issues of newness generation in multidisciplinary new product development teams and newness reception in the larger organization, and present the results of a series of exploratory interviews.