Individual profiles and team classes of the climate for creativity: A multilevel latent profile analysis

Abstract

Understanding the team climate to enhance creativity is important in academia and industry given the need for organizations to respond to the changing environment. Research on team creativity is a relatively recent trend, but most studies have been conducted from a variable-centered perspective. Despite the contributions of this type of research, there are limitations in understanding subgroups based on individuals' perceptions. To address the limitations, the purposes of this person-centered study are firstly to identify individual-level latent profiles and team-level latent classes based on the climate for creativity, and secondly to examine the differences in individual- and team-level outcomes between the identified profiles and classes. This study used multilevel latent profile analysis (MLPA) with 238 individuals in 26 project teams. We identified two individual profiles, high impediments and high stimulants, and two team classes, low impediments teams and mixed impediments teams. Low impediments teams included mostly high stimulants, and mixed impediments teams included half high stimulants and half low impediments. We further determined that high stimulants and low impediments teams showed higher individual- and team-level outcomes than the other profile and class. This study theoretically and practically contributes to team creativity management from a person-centered perspective.