Creativity

Political science

Politics

Diversity (politics)

Quantum mechanics

Sociology

Psychometrics

Developmental psychology

Internal consistency

Thermodynamics

Discriminant validity

Scale (ratio)

Sample (material)

Dissent

Anthropology

Psychology

Chemistry

Chromatography

Social psychology

Physics

Homogeneous

Journal of Applied Psychology

This study integrates research on minority dissent and individual creativity, as well as team diversity and the quality of group decision making, with research on team participation in decision making. From these lines of research, it was proposed that minority dissent would predict innovation in teams but only when teams have high levels of participation in decision making. This hypothesis was tested in 2 studies, 1 involving a homogeneous sample of self-managed teams and 1 involving a heterogeneous sample of cross-functional teams. Study 1 suggested that a newly developed scale to measure minority dissent has discriminant validity. Both Study 1 and Study 2 showed more innovations under high rather than low levels of minority dissent but only when there was a high degree of participation in team decision making. It is concluded that minority dissent stimulates creativity and divergent thought, which, through participation, manifest as innovation.

Minority dissent and team innovation: The importance of participation in decision making.