Journal article
Team diversity and its management in a co-design team
Journal of Service Management, Vol.29(1), pp.120-145
08/01/2018
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Source: InCites
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to explore the conditions under which a co-design team comprised of in-house professionals and leading-edge service users can generate innovative service design concepts.
Design/methodology/approach
The investigation used a field-experimental design to conduct two studies. Observations and open-ended questionnaires were used to examine cross-comparison matrices with experts rating the generated outcomes and t-tests being used to compare the outcome ratings between teams of different compositions.
Findings
The outcomes produced by a co-design team seem to be linked to the team diversity – process facilitation relationship. Bringing a variety of knowledge and skills into the team can lead to original outcomes, while a high disparity between members’ backgrounds can require extensive efforts to facilitate a collaborative process. Separation between users’ objectives can result in a user-driven process and outcomes that are too specific for the broader marketplace. Co-design teams that characterize minimum separation, maximum variety, and moderate disparity are likely to produce the most promising results.
Research limitations/implications
The research was restricted to a narrowly defined study setting and samples. Future research should replicate the current study in other service contexts using different team compositions.
Practical implications
Co-design requires the careful selection of users based on their background and motivations, as well as the facilitation of a process that enables the team to collaboratively transform relevant knowledge into innovative outcomes.
Originality/value
The research contributes to a better understanding of the team composition – process facilitation relationship affecting innovation outcomes. Doing so provides a more fine-grained picture of the co-design team composition and the facilitation requirements for service design
Details
- Title
- Team diversity and its management in a co-design team
- Creators
- Jakob Trischler - CTF Service Research Center, Karlstad University, Karlstad, SwedenPer Kristensson - Department of Psychology, CTF Service Research Center, Karlstad University, Karlstad, SwedenDon Scott - Southern Cross Business School, Southern Cross University, Lismore, Australia
- Publication Details
- Journal of Service Management, Vol.29(1), pp.120-145
- Publisher
- Emerald Publishing Limited
- Identifiers
- 991012926991402368
- Academic Unit
- Office of the Vice Chancellor
- Language
- English
- Resource Type
- Journal article