The Use of Influence Tactics and Outcome Valence on Goal Commitment for Assigned Student Team Projects

Abstract

Project teams are a mainstay in both organizations and business schools. Despite their popularity, instructors and students often express dissatisfaction regarding assigned student team projects. In this article, we examine the effects of influence tactics available to instructors (collaborative assistance and rational persuasion) and individual student outcome valence on goal commitment for assigned team projects. Data were collected from upper-division students majoring in business administration at a large public university to examine the roles that instructors and students alike can play in increasing individual student commitment for assigned team projects. Results indicate that both instructor collaborative assistance and rational persuasion are related to individual student value placed on assigned team projects and also that this value affects overall project goal commitment. We suggest these results provide insights to assist instructors and students for increasing overall levels of student goal commitment in assigned team projects.

Teams in Management Education

“…The merits of team assignment methods are still hotly debated. Swaim and Henley (2017, JME ) contributed to this discussion by demonstrating that instructors who adopt a coaching approach and provide a rational context for the team assignment methodology may offset some of the negative effects of instructor-assigned teams.…”

“…(Jahanbakhsh, Fu, Karahalios, Marinov, & Bailey, 2017; Morgan & Stewart, 2017). These online tools have provided greater rationality to student assignment, consistent with Swaim and Henley (2017, JME ), and has resulted in better distribution of talents and backgrounds, and opportunities to hone conflict management skills (Oakley, Hanna, Kuzmyn, & Felder, 2007) within teams.…”

Experiential Exercise in Team Formation in the Capstone: Providing Students With the Information to Make Good Team Choices

“…It is well established that employers covet graduates with strong teamwork skills and that colleges and universities have attempted to enhance those skills in their students by assigning more projects to be completed in groups (Antonioni, 1996;Chapman et al, 2006;Hansen, 2006;Swaim & Henley, 2017). This is especially true in business school capstone courses given at the end of the curriculum, such as Business Policy and Strategy or Strategic Management.…”