The Impact of Cognitive Style Diversity on Implicit Learning in Teams
Organizations are increasingly looking for ways to reap the benefits of cognitive diversity for problem solving. A major unanswered question concerns the implications of cognitive diversity for longer-term outcomes such as team learning, with its broader effects on organizational learning and produc...
| Main Authors: | , , , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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Frontiers Media S.A.
2019-02-01
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| Series: | Frontiers in Psychology |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | https://www.frontiersin.org/article/10.3389/fpsyg.2019.00112/full |
| _version_ | 1828297246892883968 |
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| author | Ishani Aggarwal Anita Williams Woolley Christopher F. Chabris Thomas W. Malone |
| author_facet | Ishani Aggarwal Anita Williams Woolley Christopher F. Chabris Thomas W. Malone |
| author_sort | Ishani Aggarwal |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Organizations are increasingly looking for ways to reap the benefits of cognitive diversity for problem solving. A major unanswered question concerns the implications of cognitive diversity for longer-term outcomes such as team learning, with its broader effects on organizational learning and productivity. We study how cognitive style diversity in teams—or diversity in the way that team members encode, organize and process information—indirectly influences team learning through collective intelligence, or the general ability of a team to work together across a wide array of tasks. Synthesizing several perspectives, we predict and find that cognitive style diversity has a curvilinear—inverted U-shaped—relationship with collective intelligence. Collective intelligence is further positively related to the rate at which teams learn, and is a mechanism guiding the indirect relationship between cognitive style diversity and team learning. We test the predictions in 98 teams using ten rounds of the minimum-effort tacit coordination game. Overall, this research advances our understanding of the implications of cognitive diversity for organizations and why some teams demonstrate high levels of team learning in dynamic situations while others do not. |
| first_indexed | 2024-04-13T12:24:13Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-5a5772318be74f4e971e2b5d0e2f1b10 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 1664-1078 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-04-13T12:24:13Z |
| publishDate | 2019-02-01 |
| publisher | Frontiers Media S.A. |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Frontiers in Psychology |
| spelling | doaj.art-5a5772318be74f4e971e2b5d0e2f1b102022-12-22T02:47:05ZengFrontiers Media S.A.Frontiers in Psychology1664-10782019-02-011010.3389/fpsyg.2019.00112428707The Impact of Cognitive Style Diversity on Implicit Learning in TeamsIshani Aggarwal0Anita Williams Woolley1Christopher F. Chabris2Thomas W. Malone3Brazilian School of Public and Business Administration, FGV, Rio de Janeiro, BrazilTepper School of Business, Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, PA, United StatesGeisinger Health System, Lewisburg, PA, United StatesSloan School of Management, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA, United StatesOrganizations are increasingly looking for ways to reap the benefits of cognitive diversity for problem solving. A major unanswered question concerns the implications of cognitive diversity for longer-term outcomes such as team learning, with its broader effects on organizational learning and productivity. We study how cognitive style diversity in teams—or diversity in the way that team members encode, organize and process information—indirectly influences team learning through collective intelligence, or the general ability of a team to work together across a wide array of tasks. Synthesizing several perspectives, we predict and find that cognitive style diversity has a curvilinear—inverted U-shaped—relationship with collective intelligence. Collective intelligence is further positively related to the rate at which teams learn, and is a mechanism guiding the indirect relationship between cognitive style diversity and team learning. We test the predictions in 98 teams using ten rounds of the minimum-effort tacit coordination game. Overall, this research advances our understanding of the implications of cognitive diversity for organizations and why some teams demonstrate high levels of team learning in dynamic situations while others do not.https://www.frontiersin.org/article/10.3389/fpsyg.2019.00112/fullteamsteam learningimplicit coordinationcollective intelligencecognitive diversity |
| spellingShingle | Ishani Aggarwal Anita Williams Woolley Christopher F. Chabris Thomas W. Malone The Impact of Cognitive Style Diversity on Implicit Learning in Teams Frontiers in Psychology teams team learning implicit coordination collective intelligence cognitive diversity |
| title | The Impact of Cognitive Style Diversity on Implicit Learning in Teams |
| title_full | The Impact of Cognitive Style Diversity on Implicit Learning in Teams |
| title_fullStr | The Impact of Cognitive Style Diversity on Implicit Learning in Teams |
| title_full_unstemmed | The Impact of Cognitive Style Diversity on Implicit Learning in Teams |
| title_short | The Impact of Cognitive Style Diversity on Implicit Learning in Teams |
| title_sort | impact of cognitive style diversity on implicit learning in teams |
| topic | teams team learning implicit coordination collective intelligence cognitive diversity |
| url | https://www.frontiersin.org/article/10.3389/fpsyg.2019.00112/full |
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