Clemson University TigerPrints All Dissertations Dissertations May 2019 Engineering Design Team Leadership in Undergraduate Design Teams James Righter Clemson University, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://tigerprints.clemson.edu/all_dissertations Recommended Citation Righter, James, "Engineering Design Team Leadership in Undergraduate Design Teams" (2019). All Dissertations. 2331. https://tigerprints.clemson.edu/all_dissertations/2331 This Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by the Dissertations at TigerPrints. It has been accepted for inclusion in All Dissertations by an authorized administrator of TigerPrints. For more information, please contact [email protected]. ENGINEERING DESIGN LEADERSHIP WITHIN UNDERGRADUATE DESIGN TEAMS A Dissertation Presented to the Graduate School of Clemson University In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree Doctor of Philosophy Mechanical Engineering by James Allen Righter May 2019 Accepted by: Joshua D. Summers, Committee Chair Gregory Cranmer Oliver Myers Marissa Shuffler ABSTRACT The objective of this research is to develop an understanding of the emergence and distribution of leadership behaviors in engineering design teams. This research was conducted with undergraduate engineering students and explored leadership behaviors within design teams in a variety of contexts. Undergraduates were selected for the study since they possessed similar education and skills as a novice engineer in industry. A mixed methods approach incorporated qualitative and quantitative techniques including interview, case study, and protocol study instruments. The use of these methods enabled the exploration of leadership in both natural and controlled environments to capitalize on the research advantages of each. Interviews were employed to understand faculty perceptions of leadership in design teams. The case study enabled the identification of leadership in a natural context without the need to control the multitude of variables in collaborative design. The protocol study provided a more focused and controlled study to identify patterns of leadership emergence and distribution of functions within a specific conceptual design activity: function modeling. The teams examined ranged from three to four-member design teams in the protocol study to ten-member teams with behavior resembling multiteam systems in the case studies. The resulting insights provide increased understanding of the emergence of leadership and the distribution of leadership functions within design teams. Interviews manifested faculty perceptions that formal structures are developed early and that informal roles emerge throughout projects, with communication skills playing an important role. ii Faculty perceptions on leadership covered a broad range of leadership functions including “performing task” and “consideration.” The density of leadership networks during case studies confirmed the emergence of informal leadership functions among designers and indicated variations in function distribution at sampling points. Protocol studies indicated that informal leadership was established early, and that leaders active early remained active throughout these focused sessions. A single instance of variation in protocol study team size demonstrated a structural parity in a three-member team that was not observed in four- member teams. This supports faculty perception that larger and multi-dimensional teams also provided different opportunities for leadership development. This understanding will form the basis for further research into leadership of design teams and may assist in the development of leadership interventions in engineering design teams and design education. iii DEDICATION This is dedicated to my wife and my two sons. Thank you for all your support and patience through one career and into a new adventure. I’d also like to dedicate it to my parents for their many years of support. iv ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would like to thank my advisor Dr. Summers for his mentorship and advice throughout this transition to a new career. Thank you for the tremendous opportunity; and for making it enjoyable. Thank you to Dr. Gregory Cranmer, Dr. Oliver Myers, and Dr. Marissa Shuffler for sharing your knowledge to shape this work and to develop me as a researcher. I could not have completed this without your expertise and assistance. Dr. Mocko, thank you for your support and guidance with my research and for all you have taught me about Capstone design. To the faculty who volunteered their valuable time and insights during leadership interviews-- thank you. I truly enjoyed and benefitted from the conversations. Dr. Schweisinger, I appreciate the opportunity to teach in the undergraduate laboratory program and all the assistance with machine design. I would also like to thank my CEDAR labmates for your assistance and friendship, and the Department Staff for all you do to support us and our research. I thank God for the strength to finish this challenge. And finally, thank you to all the talented student leaders who volunteered to participate in each of these studies. v TABLE OF CONTENTS Page Title Page ..................................................................................................................i Abstract ................................................................................................................... ii Dedication .............................................................................................................. iv Acknowledgements ..................................................................................................v List of Tables ....................................................................................................... viii List of Figures ..........................................................................................................x Chapter One : Why Understand Leadership in Engineering Design Teams ...........1 1.1 Personal Motivation .......................................................................................1 1.2 Dissertation Roadmap ....................................................................................2 Chapter Two : Current Understanding on Engineering Leadership .......................4 2.1 Collaborative Design .....................................................................................4 2.2 Collaborative Design Taxonomy ...................................................................5 2.3 Design Review Meetings .............................................................................10 2.4 Teams and Multiteam Systems ....................................................................26 2.5 Leadership [66] ............................................................................................28 2.6 Summary and Identifying the Gaps .............................................................43 Chapter Three : Research Approach ......................................................................44 3.1 Research Objective ......................................................................................44 3.2 Research Questions ......................................................................................44 3.3 Research Overview ......................................................................................46 3.4 Research Approach and Methods ................................................................46 3.5 Summary ......................................................................................................48 Chapter Four : Interview study on leadership .......................................................49 4.1 Interviews in Design Research ....................................................................49 4.2 Purpose of Study Interviews ........................................................................51 vi Table of Contents (Continued) Page 4.3 Interview Analysis .......................................................................................58 4.4 Interview Results .........................................................................................66 4.5 Findings and Conclusions ............................................................................84 4.6 Summary ......................................................................................................86 Chapter Five : Engineering Design Team Leadership Case Studies ....................88 5.2 ME 4020 and Aerospace [43] ......................................................................90 5.3 Spring 2017: Aerospace Network Analysis ...............................................104 5.4 Fall 2017 – Spring 2018: Aerospace Emergence Study ............................122 5.5 Conclusions. ...............................................................................................128 5.6 Summary ....................................................................................................129 Chapter Six : Protocol Study...............................................................................131 6.1 Purpose .......................................................................................................133 6.2 Protocol Study Development .....................................................................133 6.3 Protocol Study Results ...............................................................................141 6.4 Protocol Study Conclusions .......................................................................158