How team formation affects team effectiveness in project-based student teams in Nanyang Business School.

• Main Authors: Chan, Vicki Hui Qing., Chan, Jasmine Kar Mun., Lim, Xin Yi.
• Other Authors: Naina Gupta
• Format: Final Year Project
• Language: English
• Published: 2011
• Subjects: DRNTU::Business::General::Education; DRNTU::Business::Management::Organizational behaviour
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/10356/44121
• Institution: Nanyang Technological University

The focus of this research paper is to investigate which method of team formation – self- selection or random assignment – will result in higher team effectiveness, specifically team viability among project-based student teams in Nanyang Business School (NBS). To achieve this objective, we studied the impact of team formation on both team cohesiveness and team viability by conducting a survey involving 116 students from NBS. We found team formation to impact team cohesiveness; teams formed via self selection were associated with higher team cohesiveness compared to teams formed via the random assignment method. Team cohesiveness and team viability were positively related. Team formation was also related to team viability via the partial mediating effect of team cohesiveness; teams formed via the self-selection method were associated with higher team viability compared to teams formed via random assignment. The higher cohesiveness and viability associated with teams formed via self-selection provides compelling support for future teams in NBS to be formed via self-selection for higher effectiveness – better learning, productivity and quality of output, thereby improving the quality of future student experience in NBS.