Does joint decision making foster team creativity? Exploring the moderating and mediating effects

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to investigate the potential moderating role of team membership change in the relationship between joint decision making and team creativity and to determine whether team psychological safety mediates the moderating effect. Design/methodology/approach Survey data from multiple sources on 78 teams were collected in the People’s Republic of China. Confirmatory factor analysis and hierarchical regression analysis were adopted to analyze the data. Findings The hypothesized mediated moderation model is supported. The results indicate that joint decision making is more positively related to team creativity under lower levels of team membership change and team psychological safety is a significant intermediate mechanism between the moderating effect and team creativity. Research limitations/implications The cross-sectional design of this study is insufficient to support the causal inferences in the theoretical model; therefore, further longitudinal or laboratory research is required. In addition, other possible boundary conditions and underlying mechanisms have yet to be tested. Originality/value The present paper complements the extant studies, which mainly focus on the implication of leadership empowerment behaviors for individual outcomes, by examining the impact of joint decision making on team creativity and, further, reveals when and how joint decision making is more likely to foster team creativity, which extends the literature on leadership and team creativity.