Initiative in teams in the front end of innovation: An empirical study about the success of structured and unstructured teams

This paper contributes to the discussion on initiative in teams in front end of innovation processes (innovative teams). In contrast to the general opinion presented in the literature, this study points out that unstructured innovative teams are able to show as much initiative in developing new ideas or in finding quick solutions as structured innovative teams. Therefore we analyze the relationship between teamwork quality and team initiative in structured and unstructured innovative teams and, additionally, we focus on a climate of psychological safety. To examine this relationship, a collection of data was conducted among 135 team members from different departments in an international corporation. As it has been already pointed out in literature, unstructuredness of team members has a negative effect on success, but we can demonstrate that this effect can be neutralized by a climate of psychological safety. All advantages of an unstructured team can be utilized such as being more creative or gaining unprecedented task solutions. Thus, it can be stated that unstructured teamwork combined with a climate of psychological safety developed by top management is the best way to be successful.