Managing team innovation in the research and development (R&D) organization: critical determinants of team effectiveness

Teams are the principal vehicle in developing new drug development strategy and executing the tasks required to accomplish those objectives. This project evaluated the key drivers for team innovation performance (defined as outcomes). Team outcomes included new information creation, compression of development time, expansion of image, learning, capability development, growth satisfaction, and overall effectiveness. The two key research questions related to how team innovation performance are assessed in the branded pharmaceutical industry, and what the drivers for optimal team performance outcomes were. Results revealed that while good correlations individually existed between team outcomes (dependent variable) and tested independent variables (autonomy, coaching, climate, proactive personality, empowering leadership, and transactive memory systems), the best predictors identified through multivariate regression analysis were leader and peer coaching and transactive memory systems. The implications of these findings are examined and specific recommendations proposed. The limitations and avenues for further research are elaborated.