The effects of team personality awareness exercises on team satisfaction and performance: The context of marketing course projects

Marketing courses heavily utilize team projects that can enhance student learning and make students more desirable to recruiters seeking greater teamwork skills and experience from students. Unfortunately team projects that provide opportunities to learn and improve such skills can also be great sources of frustration and dissatisfaction for instructors and students. This research investigates the effects of exercises designed to encourage student reflection on their behavior as team members and engage in proactive communications with teammates. The exercises are based on a set of humorous personality types derived from common maladaptive student behavior in teams (e.g., “The Dictator,” “The Monarchist”). The exercises are tested in a field study, which shows their use results in greater student satisfaction with the team and team output. They also result in increased student learning as measured by improved team project performance and better individual exam and course grades compared to students who engage in the same team projects without participating in the exercises. Details on the personalities and how to run the exercises are provided along with reflections from 8 years of their use in the classroom.