Trust in Engineering Teams and Groups and Virtual Facilitation Methods

This paper presents two related studies; the first explores the typical recurring dysfunction engineering student teams face, and the second evaluates the effectiveness of a virtual facilitator, called the Droid Communication System (DCS), in training such teams to address the dysfunction. Using Patrick Lencioni's Theory of Five Dysfunctions of a Team, this study first measured for the following: absence of trust, fear of conflict, lack of commitment, avoidance of accountability, and inattention to results. Then, a virtual trust-building vignette was developed and loaded onto Droid phones to guide students to potential solutions. The studies' findings indicate that absence of trust seems to be a significant problem for engineering student teams and that 42% of participants indicate that the DCS process increased their confidence in communicating and interacting with their teams. The development of the vignettes and experimental evaluation can provide a model for future research on engineering education and on student team development.