On the Role of Individual Mindfulness for Creative Performance in Multicultural Teams

Previous research on multicultural teams and creativity shows contradictory findings on the influence of multiculturalism on creative performance. While some scholars emphasize the value-in-diversity argument, arguing that multiculturalism benefits creativity through the increased cognitive resources that it brings into a team, others find that multiculturalism leads to process losses in creativity relevant interactions and thus hinders creativity. Acknowledging this inconsistency, we propose that individual mindfulness, defined as a psychological state characterized by a heightened non-judgmental attention to, and awareness of internal (intrapsychic) and external (environmental) events in the present moment, might help to overcome these process losses and foster the positive effects on creativity associated with multiculturalism in teams. Particularly, we develop a theoretical framework in that we argue that mindfulness enhances team cohesion, internal communication and participative safety through disenabling social categorization and similarity attraction mechanisms, and fosters the integration of available cognitive resources trough enhanced information processing capabilities. Finally, we discuss the role of mindfulness in the broader context of multiculturalism in organizational settings.