Two broad sets of activities underlie team innovation: the creation and the implementation of new ideas. Despite the prevalence of this distinction, the temporal dynamics of creativity and implementation in teams and their relation to successful team innovation are not well understood. Building on and integrating linear phase models and complexity perspectives on the innovation process, we propose a temporal pattern of creativity and implementation that is linked to team innovation. We examine this temporal pattern in a longitudinal study of 76 project teams. Results show that teams engage in creativity throughout the entire life cycle of team projects; however, innovative teams refrain from focusing on implementation in early time frames and increase their focus on implementation over the course of the project. Episodes of unconstrained creativity in early time frames of a project appear to be a critical factor for team innovation. Our research provides a foundation for future research on team innovation that explicitly considers the temporal interplay of creativity and implementation. Practitioner pointsCreativity is a critical factor for team innovation that is relevant not only in the beginning of a team project but throughout its entire life cycle. Teams achieve innovative outcomes if they refrain from focusing on implementation early on and instead allow for prolonged episodes of unconstrained creativity. Innovative teams pay attention to the timing of implementation activities and increase their focus on implementation around the mid-point of a project.

Pacing style reflects how individuals distribute their effort over time in working toward deadlines. As a new construct introduced in 2002, the notion of pacing style has intuitive appeal, but has been under-researched, in part, due to a measurement need. Therefore, the purpose of this research was to improve the conceptualisation of pacing style and to develop and validate a new scale-based measure. The result was the nine-item Pacing Action Categories of Effort Distribution (PACED), consisting of deadline (complete work in a short time period just before the due date), steady (spread task activities evenly over time), and U-shaped (invest most of the effort at the start and finish of a task, with a break in between) action styles. Across eight independent samples of students, faculty, and organisational employees, we examined the dimensionality, internal consistency, stability (temporal and situational), and validity (construct, convergent, discriminant, predictive) of PACED. Results support the use of PACED as a reliable and valid measure, and we discuss several research avenues that would benefit from incorporating the concept of pacing style.

This study investigates the dimensionality of a new theoretically based measure of expatriate adjustment using a sample of 825 expatriates drawn from a broad range of home and host countries. Exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses identified a stable 10-factor structure with good psychometric properties. This study also presents supporting validity evidence for the new scale from a sample of 209 expatriates. This new measure of expatriate adjustment is shown to relate to assignment performance, assignment development and general satisfaction. Compared with past measures, this measure is based on (1) the full content domain of expatriate adjustment facets and (2) the theoretical underpinnings of adjustment, including the link between the environment in the person-environment fit relationship and the role of the person in this individually based state (i.e. not all facets of expatriate adjustment are of equal importance for all individuals).

Purpose – For decades, expatriate scholars have understood that the individual factors of cultural humility and ethnocentrism and the contextual factors of feedback and support affect expatriates’ outcomes. The study, rooted in the observation that great advice and support are often ignored by expatriates, seeks to uncover why. Based in the humility literature, the authors test whether individual differences interact with support to affect expatriate performance. The paper aims to discuss these issues. Design/methodology/approach – The authors surveyed a matched sample of 62 expatriates and their supervisors from one multinational organization. Findings – The study found that expatriates higher in cultural humility benefit more from the support and feedback offered in the host national work environment which, in turn, facilitates better supervisor ratings of performance. The authors also found that expatriates’ ethnocentrism has a direct negative influence on their ratings of performance. Research limitations/implications – The findings in the study are focussed and robust, but tested within a single organization. That said, the authors believe the results have implications for expatriate selection and for ways to manage the host national environment to improve expatriate performance. Originality/value – The study joins the research conversation on how expatriates’ individual differences interact with the environments in which they are placed to affect their success. This study also underscores the importance of humility in the global professional context.

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