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Organizing and Managing �Classroom Teams��by�Avan Jassawalla�Professor of Management�SUNY Geneseo��

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Jassawalla Background

  • Geneseo classes – semester-long team project in every class:
    • Undergraduate:
      • Organizational Behavior (OB)
      • Human Resource Management (HRM)
    • Graduate
      • Leadership in Organizations
  • Relevant research:
    • Cross-functional teams for new product development
    • Classroom team effectiveness:
      • Leadership modes
      • Social loafing
      • Peer evaluations

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Organizing and Managing �Classroom Teams

  • Semester-long team project including 2 mid-project deliverables
  • Team Building:
    • Internship Opportunity Exercise
    • Team Charter
  • Peer Evaluation System based on best practices:
    • Mid-Project assessment of team effectiveness
    • End of semester assessment of team effectiveness.

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Team Building

  • Teams are widely utilized in organizations today.
  • Employers seek teamwork skills when hiring employees.
  • Knowledge about effective teamwork is good but does not mean you know how to function effectively.
  • Two important ideas to get started:
    • Working in teams is different from working individually.
    • There is a difference between being in a team and being in an effective team.

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Team Building

  • Step 1: Internship Opportunity Exercise:
    • Active learning exercise
    • Reflection questions
    • Class discussion

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  • Step 2: Team Charter Formation
    • Based on learning from Step 1 and previous teams
    • Discuss, get consensus, put in writing expectations, e.g.:
      • Team project milestones
      • Ground rules for member behavior.

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Team Charter - Agenda

  • Team Roles – Leader, Scribe, Paraphraser, Coach
  • Ground Rules – Do’s and Don’ts, how to hold members accountable
  • Mission Statement
  • Project Milestones
  • Agenda for the next team meeting

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Peer Evaluation System – Best Practices�

  • Inform students of peer evaluation up front.
    • Knowing at the beginning of the semester makes students work harder and prevents social loafing (Brooks & Ammons 2004, Goode & Teh 2005).
  • Provide multiple criteria.
    • The criteria can guide and direct student behavior leading to effective teamwork (Paswan & Gollakota 2004).
  • Administer peer evaluations mid-semester and at the end.
    • Gives students practice and helps with more accurate final assessments (Goode & Teh 2005).
    • Clarifies gaps in performance giving students time to improve (Baker 2008, Fellenz 2006).
  • Assign portion of final grade based on peer evaluation.
    • Students work harder and reduce social loafing (Fellenz 2006).
    • Where peer evaluations are used to not only punish poor performers but also to reward high performers, students expressed greater satisfaction with teamwork (Baker 2008).

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Peer Evaluation Criteria

Students rate each team mate on the following using a 0-100 scale for each item and dividing the total by 7 to give a % for overall evaluation:

  • Attendance at team meetings
  • Participation in team meetings
  • Effort shown outside team meetings
  • Demonstrated interest and willingness to work in group situations
  • Initiative and leadership demonstrated (includes expressing constructive conflict)
  • Quality of contributions to the team project
  • Quantity of contributions to the team project

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Assessing Team Effectiveness

  • Mid-project assessment by each student, e.g.:
    • Extent to which their team has been effective up to that point with 0-10 scale.
    • Support their rating with discussion of strengths and weaknesses in team and individual performance.

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  • End of semester assessment by each student, e.g.:
    • Which stage of team development did their team reach.
    • Support their response with reflections on course topics such as communication, leadership, conflict management.

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Organizing and Managing �Classroom Teams��Any Questions?���

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