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ERIC Number: ED601077
Record Type: Non-Journal
Publication Date: 2016-Apr-12
Pages: 32
Abstractor: As Provided
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-
EISSN: N/A
Shared Leadership in Engineering Teams: A Social Network Analysis of Mechanical Engineering Capstone Design Teams
Novoselich, Brian; Knight, David
AERA Online Paper Repository, Paper presented at the Annual Meeting of the American Educational Research Association (Washington, D.C., Apr 8-12, 2016)
Background: Multiple national-level reports have indicated the need for engineers to take more prominent leadership roles to better-inform complex policy decisions. Engineering faculty are tasked to develop a basic level of leadership knowledge within undergraduate engineering students that can then be applied increasingly throughout their careers. Recent engineering leadership literature, however suggests that an adequate model of how engineers lead does not exist and that engineers find the traditional, vertical conceptualizations incompatible with the collaborative nature of engineering practice. Several studies indicate that a shared leadership model may be more appropriate than the historically vertical leadership conceptualization for knowledge work similar to that found in student design teams. Purpose/Hypothesis: This study examines the extent to which the Full Range of Leadership is shared within undergraduate, senior-level engineering capstone design teams and classifies teams based on their level of leadership sharedness. Design/Methods: This quantitative study examines round-robin (360-degree) student leadership ratings gathered from mechanical engineering capstone design team students using a 14-item subset of the Multifactor Leadership Questionnaire. Shared leadership is measured using social network analysis and operationalized as a combination of network decentralization and density across three forms of leadership related to the Full Range of Leadership model. Cluster analyses of decentralization and density measures groups the design teams into a shared leadership classification system. Results: Results suggest that leadership, on average, is more shared than centralized within capstone design teams. The amount of leadership varies across the three forms examined, in alignment with previous studies of the Full Range of Leadership model for student teams in other contexts. Classification results show that measures of shared leadership create dichotomous groupings of teams, facilitating a quadrant classification of shared leadership. Conclusions: This study corroborates previous engineering teamwork research that encourages the conceptualization of leadership as shared within engineering student design teams. To allow students to relate their design work experiences to concepts of leadership, shared leadership models may be more consistent than historical, vertical models. The results develop a taxonomy of how engineers lead within their design teams accounting for forms of leadership and levels of leadership sharing.
AERA Online Paper Repository. Available from: American Educational Research Association. 1430 K Street NW Suite 1200, Washington, DC 20005. Tel: 202-238-3200; Fax: 202-238-3250; e-mail: subscriptions@aera.net; Web site: http://www.aera.net
Publication Type: Speeches/Meeting Papers; Reports - Research
Education Level: Higher Education; Postsecondary Education
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A