MENU
  • ASEE Logo
  • Give
    Give
    ASEE Donations...
    Classified Volunteer
    Login
  • Join Login Volunteer Classified Give
    Give
    ASEE Donations...



About
  • Overview
    • Mission, Vision, Goals
    • Public Policy Statements
    • Constitution
    • Bylaws
    • Organizational Structure
    • Investment Policy
    • Financial Policy
  • Our History
  • Staff Contacts
  • Leadership
    • Board Of Directors
    • Academy Of Fellows
    • Past Board Members
    • Advisory Committees
    • Representatives to External Organizations
    • Executive Director's Message
    • Meeting Minutes
  • Volunteer
  • Careers at ASEE
  • Privacy Statement
I Am A...
  • Member
      Login Required
    • Your Member Page
    • Membership Directory
    • Financials
    • Volunteer for Task Force
      • COVID Recovery
      • Engineering Culture
    • No Login Required
    • Awards
    • Divisions, Fellows, and Campus Reps
    • Sections and Zones
    • Resources
  • Prospective Individual/Organizational Member
    • About ASEE
    • Individual Membership
    • Institutional Membership
    • Major Activities
  • Donor
  • Prospective Partner or Sponsor
  • Advertiser
  • Fellowship Seeker
    • About Fellowships
    • High School
    • Undergraduate
    • Graduate
    • Post-Doctoral
    • Other Programs
Events
  • Conferences and Meetings
    • 2022 Annual Conference & Exposition
    • 2021 Virtual Annual Conference & Exposition
    • 2020 Virtual Annual Conference & Exposition
    • Section & Zone Meetings
  • Council Events
    • Conference for Industry and
      Education Collaboration (CIEC)
    • CMC Workforce Summit
    • Engineering Deans Institute (EDI)
    • Research Leadership Institute (RLI) (Formerly ERC)
    • Engineering Technology Leaders Institute (ETLI)
    • EDC Public Policy Colloquium (PPC)
  • Featured Events
    • Frontiers in Education
    • NETI
    • CoNECD
    • First Year Engineering Experience
    • Workforce Summit
  • Future Conference Dates
Publications
  • News
    • Newsletters
    • eGFI
    • Division Publications
  • Journals and Conference Papers
    • Overview
    • Journal of Engineering Education
    • Advances in Engineering Education
    • Conference Proceedings
    • Section Proceedings
    • Zone Proceedings
    • PEER
    • Plagiarism
  • Monographs and Reports
  • Prism Magazine
  • Data
    • Profiles of E&ET Colleges
    • Case Study Series: Engineering-Enhanced Liberal Education
Impact
  • Public Policy Statements
  • Data Analysis
  • Annual Reports
  • Diversity
Education & Careers
  • Academic Job Opportunities
  • Course Catalog
  • Engineering Education Research and Innovation
    • Engineering Education Community Resource
  • PreK-12
    • eGFI Teachers
    • eGFI Students
  • Engineering Teacher PD Endorsement
Calendar
2020 Annual Conference
The ASEE 2020 Virtual Annual Conference content is available.
See More....
  • International Forum
    • Past Forums
  • 2020 Research Leadership Institute(RLI) (Formerly ERC)
    • Overview
    • Registration
    • Housing
    • Program Schedule
    • ERC Past Conferences
  • 2018 Engineering Technology Leaders Institute (ETLI)
    • Engineering Technology Leaders Institute (ETLI)
    • Registration
    • Housing
    • Program Schedule
    • ETLI Sponsorship Options
  • 2017 Global Colloquium
  • Pre K-12 Workshop
    • Call for Proposals
    • Registration
    • Housing
    • Sponsors
    • Program Schedule
    • Past Conferences
  • STEP Grantees Meeting
  • Annual Conference
    • Past Conferences
  • International Forum
    • Past Forums
  • 2020 Research Leadership Institute(RLI) (Formerly ERC)
    • Overview
    • Registration
    • Housing
    • Program Schedule
    • ERC Past Conferences
  • 2018 Engineering Technology Leaders Institute (ETLI)
    • Engineering Technology Leaders Institute (ETLI)
    • Registration
    • Housing
    • Program Schedule
    • ETLI Sponsorship Options
  • 2017 Global Colloquium
  • Pre K-12 Workshop
    • Call for Proposals
    • Registration
    • Housing
    • Sponsors
    • Program Schedule
    • Past Conferences
  • STEP Grantees Meeting
  • Annual Conference
    • Past Conferences

2017 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Work in Progress: Micro-skills and Mini-habits in Engineering Student Teams: Facilitating a Confluence of Perspectives and Talent

Presented at Teaming & Collaborative Learning

The focus of this work in progress is to identify the micro-level patterns of behavior that enable realization of the value implicit in member diversity that can be leveraged to achieve higher levels of project team performance through improved teamwork. Diversity is commonly defined as a characteristic of groups of two or more people and usually indicates demographic differences among group members. However, two layers of diversity attributes were identified by researchers: (a) the surface level (e.g., age, gender, race, and physical disabilities, Mannix & Neale, 2005); and (b) the deep level (e.g., cognitive ability, personality traits, values, beliefs, and attitudes, Harrison, Price, Gavin, & Florey, 2002). Many studies on team diversity have focused on surface-level attributes because deep-level diversity tends to be difficult to explore. Recent research shows that deep-level diversity has the greatest impact on team dynamics and performance and not with overt surface-level qualities (e.g., Vodosek, 2007; Woehr, Arciniega, & Poling, 2013).

Even though there are some challenges for heterogeneous teams, future researchers and practitioners need to emphasize how to make deep-level diversity an asset. Recognizing underlying causes of team members' conflicts due to diversity and using appropriate interventions that empower team members to deal with future challenges can be helpful for managing teamwork (Brett et al., 2006). The negative effect of individual differences may be alleviated by an effort to actively understand the differences and share a common goal and vision. A better understanding of the micro-level habits that generate positive processes in the teams that are generating value from deep-level diversity will provide a step forward in developing better team learning structures. Our study will focus on university students in a STEM field who are participating in a 48-hour intensive design experience over three days. This will allow us to monitor teams in a controlled environment for the entire duration from formation of team to completion of the tasks. We plan to collect data about the teams and their interactions to assess the team dynamics in effective and ineffective teams, using a variety of methods, including video analysis, focus groups, questionnaires, and sociometric badges. Developing a better understanding of team learning especially in STEM fields is important as they are the primary source of future workforce, and their competencies working in diverse teams in the real world will be significantly influenced by their experiences prior to entering the workplace.

Authors
  1. Dr. Malini Natarajarathinam Orcid 16x16http://orcid.org/0000-0003-1684-6476 Texas A&M University [biography]

    Dr. Malini Natarajarathinam is a Professor in the Industrial Distribution (ID) program in the Department of Engineering Technology and Industrial Distribution (ETID) in the College of Engineering at Texas A&M University. She teaches graduate and undergraduate courses in purchasing, distribution logistics, strategic relationships, distribution customer experience, etc.
    She has been involved in numerous research and consulting engagements in inventory management, supplier relationships, and improving profitability at several large and mid-sized distributors. Before entering academia, she worked with several automotive companies on projects focused on optimizing transportation, material handling, and decision analysis systems.
    Her research interests include empirical studies to assess the impact of good supply chain practices such as coordinated decision-making in stochastic supply chains, handling supply chains during times of crisis, and optimizing global supply chains on a company's financial health. Her recent research focuses on the skills and capabilities needed for workers to work in the new Industry 4.0 enhanced warehouses.
    She received her Ph.D. in Operations Management and M.S. in Applied Statistics from The University of Alabama. She also has a bachelor's and master’s degree in industrial engineering from Anna University and Auburn University, respectively.

  2. Ms. Soo Jeoung Han Texas A&M University [biography]

    Soo Jeoung (Crystal) Han is currently a Ph.D. candidate in the Department of Educational Administration & Human Resource at Texas A&M University. She worked in business and academic institutions in South Korea for more than five years. Her research interests reflect her diverse work experiences including the field of virtual team collaboration, cross-cultural team diversity, shared leadership development of teams, and global/women leadership. Currently, she has published journals and book chapters in the field of collaborative learning, team leadership, and e-learning.

  3. Prof. Michael Beyerlein Texas A&M University [biography]

    Michael Beyerlein is a Professor in the Human Resource Development Graduate Program at Texas A&M University. Formerly, he was professor and department head of Organizational Leadership & Supervision at Purdue and prior to that Founding Director of the Center for Collaborative Organizations and Professor of Industrial/Organizational Psychology at the University of North Texas. His books, book chapters, and articles usually address the topics of teams and collaboration, creativity and innovation, knowledge management, and intangible capital. His research interests include: team creativity, emergence of virtual organizations, and innovation science. His most recent edited book is The handbook for high performance virtual teams with Jill Nemiro and others.

  4. Dr. Jill Zarestky Colorado State Univeristy [biography]

    Jill Zarestky, Ph.D., is an Assistant Professor of Adult Education and Training in the School of Education at Colorado State University.

  5. Lei Xie Texas A&M University [biography]


    Lei Xie is a doctoral student at Texas A&M University. He is currently majoring in Human Resource Development in the Department of Educational Administration & Human Resource Development. His research interests include conflict management, organizational learning/change, knowledge management, learning organization, and International HRD. As a second year international graduate student from the People’s Republic of China, he has been actively engaged in academic research. He is working on several book chapters and an independent research project on the subject of organization development/change and organizational learning. He earned a Master’s degree in HRD from Texas A&M University in 2013. He graduated from Henan University of Technology in China with a Bachelor’s degree.

  6. Prof. Khalil M. Dirani Texas A&M University [biography]

    Dr. Dirani is an Associate Professor and program chair for the Education & HRD program in the Department of Educational Administration and Human Resource Development at Texas A&M University. Khalil’s research focus is on International HRD, transfer of learning practices and theories across cultures, and learning organizations in Lebanon and the Middle East region. He developed the Arabic version of the Dimensions of the Learning Organization Questionnaire (Watkins & Marsick 1993), which was implemented by Arab scholars in Lebanon, Jordan, Saudi Arabia and Egypt. Dr. Dirani’s articles have appeared in both research and professional publications such as Human Resource Development Quarterly, Human Resource Development International, International Human Resource Management, Advances in International Management, and European Journal for Training & Development.

  7. Mr. Rodney Boehm Texas A&M University [biography]

    Rodney Boehm is the Director of Aggies Invent and an Associate Professor of Practice in the Dwight Look College of Engineering. He has broad industry experiences, including over 30 years in all aspects of the telecommunications industry (sales, marketing, manufacturing, business development, and technical design), the creation of a telecommunications standard (SONET - Synchronous Optical Network) for the fiber optics industry that is still in use internationally over 30 years later, a wide variety of business experiences in international companies, and start up experiences that have helped him lead a very successful industry career. He holds a BS and ME in Electrical Engineering from Texas A&M University. Currently he is using his technical business experiences to develop and run innovation and entrepreneurial programs for the Engineering Innovation Center, a 20,000 sq ft rapid prototyping facility. These include Aggies Invent, Engineering Project Showcase, Inventeer, and Pop Up Classes. In addition, he mentors multiple entrepreneurial teams.

Download paper (182 KB)

Are you a researcher? Would you like to cite this paper? Visit the ASEE document repository at peer.asee.org for more tools and easy citations.

» Download paper

« View session

For those interested in:

  • Broadening Participation in Engineering and Engineering Technology

  • Follow Us
  • twitter
  • facebook
  • youtube
  • instagram
  • linkedin
  • 1818 N Street N.W. Suite 600, Washington DC 20036

  • Telephone: 202.331.3500 | Fax: 202.265.8504

  • © 2025 Copyright: ASEE.org All rights reserved. Privacy Policy.