Bringing it all together: a model for managing successful student project teams.

• Author: Hunt, Gerald

1. INTRODUCTION

   Undergraduate business programs increasingly use team-based student projects as part of the course curriculum for a number of reasons. First, there is a growing demand by potential employers for employees who are capable of working effectively in teams (Gardner & Korth, 1998; Levi, 2010). Second, in recognition of the increasing demand by employers for "team literate" graduates, a number of university accreditation institutions have called on universities and colleges to include teamwork activities and projects into relevant courses (Ulloa & Adams, 2004; AACSB, 2010). A third reason is pedagogical. Research has shown that students working in teams are able to learn more effectively than students working alone (Freeman, 1996; Johnson & Johnston, 1984; Watson, et al, 2008). The final reason is a rather practical one. Students working in teams for projects, particularly when the class size is large, help reduce the number of projects that need to be evaluated by the professor (Pfaff & Huddleston, 2003). Despite the increasing popularity of using student project teams, students often complain about such team assignments, indicating they find that the workload seems unfair and that they do not like the teamwork experience. In other words, students often perceive there is both input inequality (imbalance in workload) and dissatisfaction about the teamwork experience. This is a particularly serious problem because if students leave school feeling teamwork is undesirable and should be avoided, we have failed as educators.

   Given that there is such an apparent discrepancy between the increasing use and importance of teambased assignments in the business school curriculum and the negative feedback from our students, it is not surprising that there has been a considerable amount of research on teams in general and on student teams in particular. Some studies have focused on the effective management of the student team process, providing suggestions and tips on how to improve the team management process (Hansen, 2006; Siciliano, 1999; Verderber & Serey, 1996). However, much of the existing research has focused on only single variable analysis of the factors that influence student team experiences (Bolton, 1999; Brooks & Ammons, 2003; Chen, Donahue & Klimoski, 2004; Connerly & Mael, 2001; Donelan & Page, 2003; Gueldenzoph & May, 2002; Mahenthiran & Rouse, 2000; Mossholder, Chen & Lou, 2004; Peslak, 2005; Stevens & Campion, 1999; Watson, et al, 2008). Only a few studies consider several variables (Bacon, Stewart, & Silver, 1999; Kent & Hasbrouck, 2003), and very few take into account the interactive and mediating effect of variables (Bowes-Sperry, Kidder, Foley & Chelte, 2005; Huff, Cooper & Jones, 2002). To our knowledge, there does not appear to have been a study that offered a student team management model and then subjected it to empirical testing. This is unfortunate since there are almost certainly multiple forces at play in determining the extent to which student project teams are effective and satisfactory.

   The primary goal of our research was to address this gap in the literature. Specifically, we review the literature and determine several key factors that have been documented as influential in successfully managing student teams. Based on this theoretical foundation, we propose an integrated model and formulate a set of predictions concerning the factors that influence students' sense of fairness in group projects and their satisfaction about the teamwork. We then test this model and hypotheses with a sample of undergraduate business students in the context of their actual teamwork project experiences in the courses they took. Together our results highlight the importance of peer evaluation and instructor support for student teamwork success. Our findings also support the connection between input equality and distributive justice, and the particular impact of distributive justice on satisfaction.

2. A MODEL FOR MANAGING SUCCESSFUL STUDENT PROJECT TEAMS

   There is a considerable literature assessing the factors that contribute to team success in terms of product, team skill development and satisfaction. Nonetheless, there is less research on student teams (other than as subjects for a simulated team experience), and still less research aiming to investigate what actually goes on in real student groups that operate as part of a class assignment. Given that our primary goal is to develop a model of the management factors that may influence student teams in real settings and doing real assignments, we focused our literature review on studies that shed light within this framework. Moreover, we paid special attention to factors that could lead students to experience perception of fairness and satisfaction with the teamwork experience, rather than with the team's output in terms of product or marks.

   Our review of the literature suggested to us the factors influencing satisfaction and fairness in student team could be grouped into six categories: team membership selection methods, team management processes, team evaluation methods, input equality, distributive justice, and team support mechanisms. Below we highlight each of these categories and generate hypotheses which contribute to the two central dimensions we wish to focus on: input equality and distributive justice. We consider input equality and distributive justice two key variables for the fairness perception and define the former as the equal distribution of teamwork and effort among team members and the latter as the perception of justice in the distribution of grades both for the individual and other team members.

   There are several methods used to determine membership in student project teams. Students can select their own team mates, team membership can be assigned by the instructor, or random assignment of team membership (Mahenthiran & Rouse, 2000). Most of the evidence suggests that when students are given the volition to choose their own teammates, they are more satisfied with the experience of teamwork and the performance of their team (Bacon, Stewart, & Silver, 1999; Connerly & Mael, 2001). There is also evidence that the use of constrained self-selection, whereby students may select one other member of the group but not the entire group membership, also enhances team performance and satisfaction (Mahenthiran & Rouse, 2000). Based on these previous findings, we conjecture that selfdetermined team composition could facilitate the equality of individual member's inputs into the teamwork, which in turn enhances the positive experience of the teamwork. We thus hypothesize that there will be a positive relationship between the use of self-selection of team members and input equality.

   2.1 Hypothesis 1: Self-determined team composition is positively related to input equality.

   The tools used to manage student teams can also influence student experience in project teams. It is clear that higher team performance is not achieved by simply directing student groups to work together (Johnson & Johnson, 1990). Kent and Hasbrouck (2003) found a positive correlation between team planning and high performance and suggested that requiring students to...