ogot

Assessing Personality for Improved Team Performance: Classroom Implementation Strategies for the Non-Expert: 

Assessing Personality for Improved Team Performance: Classroom Implementation Strategies for the Non-Expert Madara Ogot and Gül Okudan Engineering Design Program, and Department of Mechanical and Nuclear Engineering 8th UICEE Conference February 8-10 2005 Kingston, Jamaica

Slide2: 

`When we interview college graduates, we do little to analyze their technical skills. We assume all graduates from the schools we recruit have those skills. Instead GE looks at five other qualifications: communication and interpersonal skills, analytical ability, self-confidence, personal initiative, and the willingness to adapt to change.’ Stephen Tucker Program Manager for University Recruiting General Electric

Slide3: 

'…… engineering colleges must… educate their students to work as part of teams, communicate well, and understand the economic, social, environmental, and international context of their professional activities,' American Society of Engineering Education

Design in a Collaborative Environment: 

Design in a Collaborative Environment Whereas teams can be formed for multiple purposes in engineering education: OUR IS ON FOCUS ON ENGINEERING DESIGN TEAMS Product and process design accomplished by cross-functional design teams Concurrent engineering teams Simultaneous engineering teams Integrated product teams A team is characterized by High degree of interdependence to achieve a goal Dynamic exchange of information and resources amongst members

Towards high-performing design teams in the classroom: 

Towards high-performing design teams in the classroom Current practice encourages the formation of high-performance student teams: Introduction and use of project management teams Formation of team rules Discussion of various steps in team formation (forming, storming, norming, performing, adjourning) Omitted is taking into account the PERSONALITIES of the INDIVIDUAL students and the aggregate personality of the team members Studies suggest that personality plays as important a role in team function as appropriate use of team management tools

Barriers to use of Personality in Student Engineering Design Teams!: 

Barriers to use of Personality in Student Engineering Design Teams! Studies linking personality to team performance, scattered in the literature Not all studies applicable to design teams Psychology technical jargon - difficult to understand

Objective of the Study: 

Objective of the Study Develop and approach that can be used by Engineering Faculty to improve design team performance through the assessment, discussion, and analysis of individual and student team personality. Performed in three stages: Compilation of personality studies as relates to design team performance Based on Five-Factor Model Present devoid of technical jargon Output: Short handout presented to students Implementation strategy for the classroom environment Account for privacy issues Allow quick interpretation by students Not take too much classroom time Assessment Does the intervention make a difference

The Design Process: 

The Design Process Extent covered in most courses

The Design Process: 

The Design Process Stages I and III Tasks more structured and certain Follow step-by-step formulations Unexpected situations (that require creativity do arise) Associated with INCREMENTAL and MECHANICAL task teams in the literature Extent covered in most courses

The Design Process: 

The Design Process Stage II Tasks less structured and less certain More dynamic and require higher creativity from teams Associated with RADICAL task teams in the literature Extent covered in most courses

Objective of the Study: 

Objective of the Study Develop and approach that can be used by Engineering Faculty to improve design team performance through the assessment, discussion, and analysis of individual and student team personality. Performed in three stages: Compilation of personality studies as relates to design team performance Based on Five-Factor Model Present devoid of technical jargon Output: Short handout presented to students Implementation strategy for the classroom environment Account for privacy issues Allow quick interpretation by students Not take too much classroom time Assessment Does the intervention make a difference

Summary of Domains and Personality Traits of Five-Factor Model for Individuals : 

Summary of Domains and Personality Traits of Five-Factor Model for Individuals

Impact of Group Clusters on Design Team Performance for the Neuroticism: 

Impact of Group Clusters on Design Team Performance for the Neuroticism

Impact of Group Clusters on Design Team Performance for the Openness Domain : 

Impact of Group Clusters on Design Team Performance for the Openness Domain

Impact of Group Clusters on Design Team Performance for the Extraversion Domain : 

Impact of Group Clusters on Design Team Performance for the Extraversion Domain

Impact of Group Clusters on Design Team Performance for the Agreeableness Domain : 

Impact of Group Clusters on Design Team Performance for the Agreeableness Domain

Impact of Group Clusters on Design Team Performance for the Conscientiousness Domain : 

Impact of Group Clusters on Design Team Performance for the Conscientiousness Domain

Objective of the Study: 

Objective of the Study Develop and approach that can be used by Engineering Faculty to improve design team performance through the assessment, discussion, and analysis of individual and student team personality. Performed in three stages: Compilation of personality studies as relates to design team performance Based on Five-Factor Model Present devoid of technical jargon Output: Short handout presented to students Implementation strategy for the classroom environment Account for privacy issues Allow quick interpretation by students Not take too much classroom time Assessment Does the intervention make a difference

Implementation Strategies in a Classroom Environment: 

Perform Free Online Personality Assessment Numerous Assessments available Used that developed by Prof. Johnson (PSU) 25 questions - URL in paper Implementation Strategies in a Classroom Environment 1 2 Student emails raw numbers to course instructor Compiles numbers along the five dimension by team Creates numeric aggregate team personality profile

Visual Representation of Team Personality Data: 

Visual Representation of Team Personality Data 3 4 5

Interpretation of Team Personality Data: 

Interpretation of Team Personality Data 6 5

Summary of Team Personality-Based Team Strengths and Weaknesses: 

6 7 Summary of Team Personality-Based Team Strengths and Weaknesses

Objective of the Study: 

Objective of the Study Develop and approach that can be used by Engineering Faculty to improve design team performance through the assessment, discussion, and analysis of individual and student team personality. Performed in three stages: Compilation of personality studies as relates to design team performance Based on Five-Factor Model Present devoid of technical jargon Output: Short handout presented to students Implementation strategy for the classroom environment Account for privacy issues Allow quick interpretation by students Not take too much classroom time Assessment Does the intervention make a difference

Assessment: 

Assessment Method introduced in a section of EDandamp;G100 Introduction to Engineering Design First-year course taken by all engineering students (Also introduced and assessed in other courses, but those results not presented here)

Assessment Results - I: 

Assessment Results - I

Assessment Results - II: 

Assessment Results - II

Conclusions: 

Conclusions Presented an approach implementable by all engineering faculty to get students in engineering design teams: To assess and understand their own personality as relates to team performance Due to awareness, lead to better participation as a team member To analyze their teams’ personality based strengths and weaknesses From a basis to identify team dysfunction problems that may arise Implementation will hopefully lead to fewer dysfunctional teams Handout will be available on my website