Impact of group member creative style on creative problem solving process in a technology-mediated environment

Abstract

Scope: This study investigated how homogeneous teams with members with a specific cognitive style perform on the two phases of a creative problem solving process when facilitated by GSS. Ideators groups were compared to Evaluator groups in terms of their performance on the divergent and convergent phases of the creative problem solving process.

Method of Study: This was a single factor quasi-experimental study which compared performance of Ideator groups to Evaluator groups on the idea generation and idea evaluation phase of the creative problem solving process using MANOVA. The dependant variables were idea fluency, flexibility, originality and elaboration for the divergent phase and solution fluency, solution elaboration and solution novelty for the convergent phase. There were total number of 31 groups in the sample.

Findings and Conclusions: Significant differences were found between the performance of ideator and evaluator groups on the divergent phase. However no significant differences were found between the two groups on the idea selection phase, leading to the conclusion that the GSS used in the study was primarily influential in the divergent phase.