Examining the Impact of Team Communication Practices in Innovative Research and Development (R&D) Teams: An Early Findings

Abstract

This study was undertaken with the aim of looking at team communication practices amongst innovative research and development (R&D) teams. Innovation in R&D involves the processing and transformation of new knowledge into a commercially viable outcome. Communication is seen as an effective mechanism to translate, share and integrate these new knowledge or information in creating new products or technologies. Therefore, there is an urgent need to understand the role of communication, in this case team communication practices, within innovative R&D teams in explaining its influence on team innovativeness. To achieve the aim, innovative R&D teams from selected public technical universities in Malaysia were identified and selected to participate in this study. Database of these teams was solicited from respective universities’ centre for research innovation and management and relevant bodies managing research and innovation activities within the universities. The literature guided the researchers in identifying, selecting and developing appropriate research instruments utilised in this study. For the purpose of this study, team communication practices (boundary spanning, communication safety, team reflexivity and task communication) will be examined in terms of its influence on team innovativeness. The findings in this paper presented an early insight describing the demographics of the innovative R&D teams in Malaysia. Subsequently, this study also provides an understanding on the impact of team communication practices on R&D team which is vital in explaining the dynamics of team communication of innovative R&D teams.

DOI: 10.5901/jesr.2014.v4n4p177