ABSTRACT
In previous chapters, the information type of ideas has been recognized as a predominant contributor to quality in ill-structured decision making. In Part A of this chapter, the effects that the social structure of groups and teams can have on idea generation is elaborated upon and given explicit forms. Single-source ideas are discriminated from the combinational or multiple source ideas that can be generated in interactive groups and teams. Although this has been directly recognized in recent studies, it has not been given explicit forms that support inference on process gains from the dynamics of multisource idea generation in interactive teams. The extent of process gain from combinational ideas is mediated by overlap or redundancy in the idea pools of group or team members. Overlap can generally be decreased by increasing heterogeneity in member backgrounds.
