A Seven-Year Review of the Impact of a First-Year Student Team Building Event: Enhancing the Ability to Manage

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Prof. John Smallwood and Chris Allen

DOI:

Keywords: Construction Management, Orientation, Students, Team Building

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ABSTRACT

PURPOSE

The purpose of the study is to determine the impact of a one-day first-year team building event (TBE) evolved to enhance first-year students’ ability to manage themselves, work as a team, interface with each other, strategise, plan, evolve tactics, and take action to enable their team to secure victory in the ‘amazing race’ style event.

DESIGN / METHODOLOGY / APPROACH

A quantitative approach, which entailed the completion of a self-administered questionnaire after the TBE every year for a period of seven years, determined the students’ perceptions.

FINDINGS

The study reveals that the TBE activities contributed to enhancing participants’ ability to communicate with first-year colleagues; built confidence in their abilities including that of completing a task, and enhanced participants’ alternative thought processes, ability to be creative, strategise, evolve tactics, act, and plan.

RESEARCH LIMITATIONS / IMPLICATIONS

The study is based on a small sample annually, which may affect the generalisation of the findings, however, they are indicative and amplify the need for non-traditional interventions during tertiary Construction Management education.

PRACTICAL IMPLICATIONS

Traditional and non-traditional academic programme interventions are required to prepare first-year students for the rigours of their first year of study, and undergraduate programme. The activities-built confidence in their abilities, enhanced communication amongst them as a group, and provided an opportunity for them to test alternative thought processes outside the traditional classroom environment. Given the TBE’s impact on first-year students’ ability to manage themselves, strategise, plan, evolve tactics, and act, the TBE should continue to be undertaken on an annual basis, and further potential events directed at enhancing students’ abilities and increasing confidence in their abilities should be investigated.

WHAT IS THE ORIGINAL / VALUE

The study makes an important contribution to the Construction Management body of knowledge. This paper contributes to the ongoing discussion on the implementation of non-traditional academic programme interventions, such as the TBE, to impact students’ ability to better manage themselves, which in turn should contribute to their ability to successfully complete the undergraduate programme.