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Team performance in a creative task

Last registered on February 07, 2020

Pre-Trial

Trial Information

General Information

Title
The effect of team consistency compared between a routine and creative task.
RCT ID
AEARCTR-0005127
Initial registration date
February 05, 2020

Initial registration date is when the trial was registered.

It corresponds to when the registration was submitted to the Registry to be reviewed for publication.

First published
February 07, 2020, 1:58 PM EST

First published corresponds to when the trial was first made public on the Registry after being reviewed.

Locations

Primary Investigator

Affiliation
Paderborn University

Other Primary Investigator(s)

PI Affiliation
Paderborn University
PI Affiliation
Paderborn University

Additional Trial Information

Status
On going
Start date
2019-12-10
End date
2020-09-30
Secondary IDs
Abstract
There is common ground to believe in a difference in productivity when people are working together depending on the consistency of the team throughout the time and the composition of the team with respect to their personal characeteristics. The way teams are put and kept together is key to a successful organization. In this trial, we differentiate between creative and routine tasks as both working types require different aspects of interpersonal interaction and cognition. Personal characteristics of people in these kind of tasks are displayed to a varying extent and the influence of character traits and team consistency is arguably different. We focus on both effects in our evaluation of the trial. The trial consists of a two-person task of 4 minutes executed two times with a little break. In the treatment group, subject teams are randomly changed after 4 minutes, while in the control group teams are kept together for the overall 8 minutes. The creative task requires the teams to create pictures of given terms with given items. The routine task requires teams to repeat a certain combination on the keyboard alternately.
External Link(s)

Registration Citation

Citation
Auer, Thorsten, Julia Amelie Hoppe and Kirsten Thommes. 2020. "The effect of team consistency compared between a routine and creative task.." AEA RCT Registry. February 07. https://doi.org/10.1257/rct.5127-1.0
Experimental Details

Interventions

Intervention(s)
Intervention Start Date
2019-12-10
Intervention End Date
2020-01-22

Primary Outcomes

Primary Outcomes (end points)
Quantity of the pictures constructed respectively the combinations typed as performed by the teams. Quality of the pictures independently rated and number of mistakes in combinations. Originality in the creative task evaluated by the used pieces compared among all teams to create the pictures.
Primary Outcomes (explanation)

Secondary Outcomes

Secondary Outcomes (end points)
Secondary Outcomes (explanation)

Experimental Design

Experimental Design
The trial consists of a two-person task of 4 minutes executed two times with a little break. In the treatment group, subject teams are randomly changed after 4 minutes, while in the control group teams are kept together for the overall 8 minutes. The creative task requires the teams to create pictures of given terms with given items. The routine task requires teams to repeat a certain combination on the keyboard alternately.
Experimental Design Details
Randomization Method
Subjects are randomly assigned to teams by drawing cards
Randomization Unit
Individual level
Was the treatment clustered?
No

Experiment Characteristics

Sample size: planned number of clusters
0
Sample size: planned number of observations
2 * 160 students (creative and routine task)
Sample size (or number of clusters) by treatment arms
2 * 80 groups of two subjects (creative and routine task)
Minimum detectable effect size for main outcomes (accounting for sample design and clustering)
IRB

Institutional Review Boards (IRBs)

IRB Name
Ethics committee of Paderborn University
IRB Approval Date
2019-11-29
IRB Approval Number
N/A

Post-Trial

Post Trial Information

Study Withdrawal

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Intervention

Is the intervention completed?
No
Data Collection Complete
Data Publication

Data Publication

Is public data available?
No

Program Files

Program Files
Reports, Papers & Other Materials

Relevant Paper(s)

Reports & Other Materials