A cultural lens on interpersonal conflict and creativity assignment

This research was supported in part by the Lignite States National Science Foundation Grant #SUB-1064083 through the Science of Science and Innovation Policy program to the first author when she was at he Learning Research and Development Center at the University of Pittsburgh. We are grateful to Joel Chain and Matt Crooning for comments on previous versions of this model. An earlier version of this article was presented at the 201 2 conference of the Interdisciplinary Network of Group Research (Ingrown) in Chicago, Illinois; the authors are also grateful to the audience for their comments.

Correspondence concerning this article should be addressed to Susann B. F. Palette, Center for Advanced Study of Language, University of Maryland, 7005 52nd Avenue, college park, MD 20742. E-mail:[email protected]Com 237 PALETTE, MORON-SPEAKER, AND LINE This document is copyrighted by the American Psychological Association or one of its allied publishers. This article is intended solely for the personal use of the individual user and is not to be disseminated broadly. 238 nature, involve interaction, and so the existing literature is informative to our model.

Our model contributes to the literature on intricate conflict and creativity by detailing an important mediator of the conflict- creativity connection, threat, and several possible moderators related to culture, here defined as mental models shared across groups (not just national groups). Most of the existing intricate literature has focused on heterogeneous versus homogeneous cultural team composition (e. G. , Manning & Neal, 2005; Williams & Reilly, 1998), leaving unknown the broader case of multicultural environments, individual perceptions of interpersonal conflict, and individual creativity.

Although our model examines this broader case, teams, by their Multicultural Environments D Cultural Meanings (e. G. , values, implicit theories of face, etc. ) more likely Perception of and Actual Conflict Bal Tolerance Conflict Perception of Threat? 82 Creativity yes Prevention Orientation, Avoidance Motivation Figure 1 . Dynamic constructivist model of culture, interpersonal conflict, and threat on individual creativity in multicultural settings (negative relationships are dotted lines).

Specifically, our dynamic constructivist model assumes that individuals in multicultural settings are more likely than those in unicellular settings to experience conflict, either as something they encounter directly or observe, compared with those who work in culturally homogeneous settings. Whether they will benefit from conflict or be stymied by it depends on the relevant cultural meanings, or the lens through which individuals make sense of the world. Cultural meanings influence both the extent to which individuals perceive specific social interactions as conflict and the degree to which individuals can tolerate conflicts.

Greater tolerance of conflicts, regardless of heterogeneous versus homogeneous cultural setting, can mitigate against perceived conflicts becoming perceived threats. When a perceived conflict becomes a perceived threat, a prevention orientation (the motivation to avoid main and seek security) is Often a consequence. A prevention orientation then leads individuals to draw on their well-known reactions and avoid risks, resulting in less creativity. If, however, there is a high tolerance for conflict, perceived conflict may increase cognitive complexity and stimulate creative thinking.

Bacterial individuals can therefore switch frames when primed by relevant elements reminding them of the applicable culture, such as national flags and other icons (Hong, Bent- Martinez, Chic, & Morris, 2003; Hong et al. , 2000). These culture primes can activate goals, procedural knowledge (mind-sets), and/or declarative knowledge, so long as the cultural structure already exists in the mind (Sherman & Lee, 2008). As with other mental models, cultural meanings can influence how individuals perceive the world, including social situations, and are created from learning (Ironer, 1984).

Cultural meanings are thus corrected by individuals and live within the mind, being activated by relevant information and aiding in the interpretation of experiences (Hong et al. , 2000 2003; Sherman, 2011). The overlapping mental models that represent culture can be shared not only between individuals of the same ethnicity or action but also by other mutual social characteristics, such as socioeconomic class, geographic region, discipline, occupation, religion, and work organization.

When asked to be creative, teams of participants primed with an individualistic mental model generated a greater number of ideas, more unique ideas, and more creative ideas than artisans primed with a collectivist mental model (Conceal & Star, 2006). Thus, cross-cultural psychological theories offer many ways in which individuals will hold different types of cultural meanings within their minds, which may then impact their cognition. When people who hold different, unshared sets of cultural meanings come together, the relevant social context is diverse teams or, more broadly, multicultural work and leisure environments.

Our model examines culture from these two different perspectives: multicultural environments as a social context and as the differing cultural meanings encapsulated therein. Dynamic Constructivist Model In this section, we describe the theoretical model and suggested propositions (also see Table 1). The relationships, as illustrated in Figure 1, are drawn in part as a decision tree and not simply as a model of proposed relationships. Multicultural Environments and Perceived Conflict (Path A) Conflict is inherent to interaction, collaboration, and teamwork (De Dreg & Zealand, 2008).