17321: No Need to Like My Values, Just Respect Them. When Team Value Diversity Enhances Problem Solving (session 25596)

Team value diversity, reflecting divergent value priorities within teams, has been linked to both positive (e.g., creativity) and negative (e.g., relationship conflict) team outcomes. This paper addresses this problem drawing on team integrative complexity theory and models relationship conflict not as an outcome but as an important condition for creative problem solving. Specifically, we argue that when value-diverse teams embrace pro-diversity beliefs and openly express differences through relationship conflict, they can foster creative solutions to complex problems via the emergence of team integrative complexity. A first survey study (N = 68 teams) with small 3-person teams engaging in a short-term interaction showed initial support for our reasoning. A second survey study (N = 168 teams) with bigger teams engaged in longer term interactions showed full support for our proposed model. Our findings contribute to the diversity literature by reframing the role of conflict in value-diverse teams and introducing integrative complexity as a complement to existing mechanisms like team informational elaboration and team psychological safety. Additionally, we advance research on complex problems, advocating for the enactment—not suppression—of conflict to drive innovative solutions.

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