New Knowledge Creation Dynamics in Multidisciplinary Teams: In Search of Innovation Practices

The growing necessity to introduce innovations to markets has made firms more conscious of their conception and consumption of knowledge as the meta-resource with which they compete. Consequently, the use of multidisciplinary teams, where knowledge resources are brought together from different disciplines has gained tremendous popularity. Yet these teams have often fallen short of realizing their innovation-creation potential due to unique and unusual team functioning problems. This research uncovers and analyzes concurrent tensions of commitment, leadership and knowledge sharing that emerge in multidisciplinary teams due to their heterogeneous composition and often derail their creative knowledge development performance. As found, tension management mechanisms including boundary management, distributed leadership and helping-based collaboration enable multidisciplinary teams realizing their potential to innovate.