Great Expectations: Effects of Team-Skills Training on Student Teams

This paper reports an experiment investigating the effects of team-skills training on accounting student team performance and outcomes. We examine how in-class team skills discussion sessions led by the course instructor impact student team perceptions of the usefulness of team work, team performance, and team project outcomes. We find that while students generally perceive positive benefits from engaging in team work, those who receive team-skills training perceive fewer benefits. Students who undergo team-skills training also rate their own contributions to the team project, as well as the contributions of their team members, lower than students who do not. These findings suggest that students who receive team-skills training have higher expectations of themselves and of their team mates, and are more critical in their evaluation of how the team worked together. Student teams who receive team-skills training also obtain lower marks on their team project. We discuss the implications of our findings.