Antecedents to Team Performance on Student IT Projects
Authors: Douglas Havelka
Year: 2016

1. INTRODUCTION Using teams to design, develop, and implement information systems is a necessity and the norm in most business organizations and within the software development industry. Teaching information technology (IT) students tools, techniques, methods, and technologies to develop state-of-the-art systems addresses only one aspect of becoming a successful professional in today's work environment. Developing communication and interpersonal skills and learning how to effectively interact with other professionals is also critical for attaining professional expertise and success. One way universities build these soft skills is through a project or practicum course where students work in teams to develop a system for "real-life" clients. The overarching objective of these courses is for students to address challenges that are not simply "textbook" problems or cases, but include the nuances associated with dealing with a client and others on the team. These courses allow students to gain experience working on a team and to develop skills that lead to improved team performance, and in turn result in more successful projects. The importance of these courses to the education of IT students is evidenced by the number and diversity of papers published focusing on various aspects of these courses and the number of suggestions made for improving these courses (Broman, Sandahl, and Baker, 2012; Oakley et al., 2007; Pimmely, 2003; Schlimmer, Fletcher, and Hermens, 1994). Some of the more relevant work includes a study that investigated determinants of student team performance and found that peer evaluations and objective measures from a learning management system were correlated with team grades and performance (Braender and Naples, 2013) and the work on the impact of team emotional intelligence on team effectiveness (Dunaway, 2013). Lastly, the importance of collaboration on student team performance in a recent teaching tip also suggests the importance of this topic (Buche, 2013). Many factors are thought to influence team performance and many of these have been studied including how teams are formed (Bergey, 2012); time separation and coordination (Espinosa, Cummings, and Pickering, 2012); culture (Hodgson, Hubbard, and Siemieniuch, 2013); team familiarity and role experience (Huckman, Staats, and Upton, 2012); leader behavior (Kolb, 1993) and emotional display (Van Kleef et al., 2012); media (Wellens, 1989) and information sharing (Mesmer-Magnus and Dechurch, 2012); and communication frequency (Patrashkova-Volzdoska et al., 2003). Additionally, there have been articles summarizing the extant research and calling for further research on team performance (Salas, Cooke, and Gorman, 2012). One of the factors identified as important for team performance is knowledge sharing. Knowledge sharing is defined as the process of identifying relevant knowledge distributed throughout an organization and transferring it to another context where the knowledge is needed (or useful) (Choi, Lee, and Yoo, 2010). Within teams, knowledge sharing allows members of a team to identify other team members that have the knowledge to solve problems or perform tasks; resulting in the reduction of time or costs associated with performing a task. Knowledge sharing has been studied almost exclusively as an objective of the project management process and as necessary for project success (Choi, Lee, and Yoo, 2010; Jewels and Ford, 2006; Malhotra and Majchrzak, 2005; Nambisan and Wilemon, 2000; Petter, Mathiassen, and Vaishnavi, 2007). There has been a good deal of research on improving knowledge sharing on project teams and identifying the factors that influence knowledge sharing during the software development process (Chenghong, Yunjie, and Cheng, 2008; Hsu, Lee Jang, and Der-Chen, 2011; Kettunen, 2003; Liang et al., 2009; Liyun, Keyi, and Zhenzhong, 2010; Lu, Wang, and He, 2010; Mitchell and Seaman, 2012; Newell et al., 2005; Sena, Shani, and Stebbins, 1999; Uchihira et al. …