Application of a Protocol to Observe Leadership Behaviors in Engineering Design Teams

Abstract

This protocol study was conducted to increase understanding of the emergence and distribution of functional leadership behaviors in undergraduate engineering design teams. This study applies the protocol presented at the 2018 IDETC to observe design teams consisting of novice engineers constructing a function model during a video recorded session. The videos were then coded for leadership functions and analyzed to determine the distribution of informal leadership functions between the team members and the temporal emergence of the informal leadership structures within the teams. Leadership behaviors were observed to be predominantly transition and action functions with relational behaviors occurring less frequently. The behaviors were quantified by number of occurrences per quintile. The leaders observed to perform the most leadership behaviors early in the sessions often remained consistent. However, leadership functions were shared between team members as demonstrated by the leadership network graphs.