I have read with interest some very creative suggestions about how to
manage dissent and the free rider problem in project/simulation teams.
Peer evaluations have been discussed thorughly as a means of the
instructor stepping in as a corrective force.
Ideally, teams should be able to manage their problems within their own
framework and not bring the instructor in unless as a measure of last
resort. A system that I use in my under-graduate and graduate classes
works quite well.
I let the students pick their own teams so as to limit subsequent problems
due to conflicting schedules. There are always a few free agents who will
then have to interview with existing temas and find one suitable.
I have a session very early in the semester where I get the teams to sit
in groups in the class and identify from their own past experiences good
and bad team behaviors. These are then discussed in an open format. I then
require each team to draw up a contract putting down whatever guidelines
they agree upon within the team. This contract is to be typed and signed
by all. A copy is given to me. At the minimum, I require them to specify
what the team would try to accomplish and a common day/time they would
meet. Anything else they put in is up to them. During this session, they
are also given the form in which they would rate and evaluate each other
at the end of the semester for me to translate their group grade into
individual grades.
During the middle of the semester, at the end of a class exercise, I ask
the team to give itself a grade on team behavior vis a vis their contract.
This mid-term correction session helps to bring out festering problems
within the team as they discuss the grade they would give themselves. They
know that this grade does not 'count' towards their final grade.
When they write their final report, they have to include a paragraph about
team process and evaluate themselves again with reference to their
contract. This time it counts.
After introduction of this system, I have found that over the last three
years, I have not had a single instance of a team complaining to me that
they have a problem within their team. I am aware indirectly that some
teams do have some problems within, but they find a way of sorting it out
themselves. I do have about one team in a class of 7 or 8 teams that would
have disagreement in the way they rate each other, but these are marginal.
It only results in one or two members getting half a letter grade or so
lower than the others.
peace.
gopi
****************************************
C. Gopinath, Ph.D.
Suffolk University
Department of Management
Sawyer School of Management
8 Ashburton Place
Boston, MA 02108, U.S.A.
Phone: 617.305.1934
Internet:
cgopinat@suffolk.edu