A Plan, Do, Check, Act (PDCA) Approach to Improve Team Assignments Using a Web-based Tool

While many business schools emphasize the development of teams skills as part of their learning goals, there is no doubt that the development of team skills among business students (both undergraduate and graduate) is one of... [ view full abstract ]

While many business schools emphasize the development of teams skills as part of their learning goals, there is no doubt that the development of team skills among business students (both undergraduate and graduate) is one of the most difficult learning goals to achieve (Feichtner & Davis, 1985). We combine the well-known continuous improvement framework of Deming’s (1950) Wheel or the plan-do-check-act (PDCA) cycle with a more recently developed tool for team assessment, the Comprehensive Assessment of Team Member Effectiveness (CATME), to provide a template for systematic pedagogical improvement in undergraduate team skills. We first introduce the CATME tool and its capabilities. Next we demonstrate how faculty can use the PDCA cycle to create a thorough CATME team evaluation process to thoughtfully assess the efficacy of their teamwork assignments, and offer demonstrations of how an evaluation of CATME data can indicate improvements about the structure of team assignments in business courses.