Team Factors in Ethical Decision Making: A Content Analysis of Interviews with Scientists and Engineers.

The ethical decision making of researchers has historically been studied from an individualistic perspective. However, researchers rarely work alone, and they typically experience ethical dilemmas in a team context. In this mixed-methods study, 67 scientists and engineers working at a public R1 (very high research activity) university in the United States responded to a survey that asked whether they had experienced or observed an ethical dilemma while working in a research team. Among these, 30 respondents agreed to be interviewed about their experiences using a think-aloud protocol. A total of 40 unique ethical incidents were collected across these interviews. Qualitative data from interview transcripts were then systematically content-analyzed by multiple independent judges to quantify the overall ethicality of team decisions as well as several team characteristics, decision processes, and situational factors. The results demonstrated that team formalistic orientation, ethical championing, and the use of ethical decision strategies were all positively related to the overall ethicality of team decisions. Additionally, the relationship between ethical championing and overall team decision ethicality was moderated by psychological safety and moral intensity. Implications for future research and practice are discussed.

Examining the fluidity of innovation teams: a conceptual framework.

As innovative endeavors have become more complex and time-intensive, there has become an increasing reliance on expert teams in organizations. Expert innovation teams are comprised of team members with extensive experience and mastery in a particular discipline. These teams utilize fluid membership that expands the available knowledge of the team but creates challenges for effective teamwork. We argue that the mechanism for creating an enduring impact and developing a product to fruition requires the cognitive and social integration of fluid team members. This article focuses on how teams effectively integrate knowledge with diverse, and possibly fluid, team members and how teams can organize knowledge through planning and reflection to implement the idea successfully. Knowledge integration and team reflexivity are considered in tandem to emphasize the multi-faceted nature of generating and implementing innovative solutions and the conflicting teamwork processes that hinder innovative efforts. To understand how these competing teamwork processes required for successful innovation interact, we developed a framework that considers resilience as the factor that elicits team creative performance. In doing so, we discuss how innovation teams build resilience over time and how creative failure can lead to greater levels of innovation.