Team Bicultural Identity Integration: Investigating Its Antecedents and Consequences

Team bicultural identity integration refers to team members’ collective perception of their different cultural backgrounds as being compatible and capable of integration. When bicultural identity integration is present, intercultural teams are likely to profit from cultural diversity. In consequence, fostering team bicultural identity integration becomes one of the team leaders’ primary tasks in bicultural teams. In support of this rationale we show, based on data from 84 Sino-German teams in China, that bicultural teams high on bicultural identity integration are more likely to engage in creative collaboration and knowledge integration. Furthermore, team bicultural identity integration can be fostered by leaders’ trusting behaviors, in particular if the leader is high on metacognitive cultural intelligence. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed.