Are your students “Wired That Way?”: Integrating personality types into the administration of group projects

Abstract

Compared to more complex personality assessments, Wired That Way by Marita Littauer, presents four personality types that students find easy to understand and internalize: Popular Sanguine, Powerful Choleric, Perfect Melancholy, and Peaceful Phlegmatic. Students’ awareness of their own and their peers’ classification in this comprehensive personality plan can be useful in the administration of group projects and other classroom activities. The understanding and application of the innate strengths and weaknesses of each personality type in a group setting provides tools and language that enable students to navigate challenges. This Teaching Brief presents the benefits and process of incorporating Wired That Way into the administration of group projects. Recommendations are based on analyzing the outcomes of a group project over 6 years for 402 students in 125 groups in 18 sections of an upper-division undergraduate Business Administration course in Tourism and Hospitality Management. Analysis results demonstrate that the personality makeup of individuals in a group can influence project component grades, most notably how the personalities in each group influence creativity, group cohesion, and overall project performance.