From group assignment to class e-business project: a "medical rotation" approach.

Rao, Madhu T. ; Lockwood, Diane

ABSTRACT

Most group project assignments in MIS or E-commerce courses develop students' intra-group team building skills, but fail to address larger inter-group or cross-functional integration skills. A class e-business project based on a "medical rotation" model was designed to emulate cross-functional integration demands found in a business environment, while simultaneously exposing students to each of the major functional areas involved in managing technology companies. The medical rotation approach to e-business development is described herein and is offered as an alternative pedagogical model to emphasize the development of inter-group skills with broad exposure to all areas of e-commerce. Students reported a high level of satisfaction with the E-business project, in spite of some inevitable coordination challenges.

INTRODUCTION

Real world business processes often require integration of multiple activities across several different functional areas. For example, the process "pay vendors," involves accounting, shipping and receiving, and manufacturing tasks. Organizational effectiveness in supporting such cross-functional processes requires extensive communication among functional areas (Smart & Barnum, 2000)

Universities have traditionally attempted to mimic real world business team processes through the use of group projects. Business schools, in particular, have been vocal advocates of this type of experiential learning (Keys, 2004). Unfortunately, the structure of most group assignments does not resemble a true working environment. In the traditional group-centric assignment, students are divided into small teams, either self-selected or ad hoc, and then work as a group to accomplish a relatively complex task (e.g., design and develop a web site). A significant volume of research has addressed the advantages of a group learning approach. These include an understanding of group dynamics, more comprehensive assignments, the development of interpersonal skills, exposure to multiple viewpoints, and a more realistic preparation for the business environment (Mello, 1993). While such a group approach addresses important aspects of team-oriented work, these types of assignments do not, unfortunately, capture the larger and more problematic issue of inter-team communication. In speaking of the nature in which cross-functional engineering groups must cooperate on a project, the nanotechnology researcher Eric Drexler (1991) wrote:

 "If the finished parts are going to work together, they must be
 developed by groups that share a common picture of what each part
 must accomplish. Engineers in different disciplines [e.g.,
 mechanical, electrical, aerospace] are forced to communicate; the
 challenge of management and team-building is to make that
 communication happen".

To best of the authors' knowledge, this paper is the first to offer a potential solution to the inter-group gaps in simulated business team environments. The paper argues for an integrated, "medical rotation" approach to team projects which addresses the challenges of inter-team communication and coordination, while simultaneously preserving the advantages of traditional group assignments.

THE MEDICAL ROTATION EXEMPLAR: ESTABLISHING AN E-BUSINESS

The medical rotation approach to education and training is a time-honored method for developing potential doctors in their area of future specialization. The model focuses on exposing students to a variety of fields within their chosen medical specialty. For example, the surgical residency program at The University of Arizona requires all first-year residents to go through mandatory one-month rotations in orthopedic surgery, urology, vascular surgery, neurosurgery, anesthesiology, trauma surgery and emergency medicine. The resulting program "provides surgical residents with broad clinical experience, comprehensive education in surgical sciences.. (1)."

The philosophy behind the medical rotation model is certainly applicable to the business education as well. Ideally, students should be exposed to all areas of business in an integrated real-world environment. In addition, unlike the silos of learning in residency rotations, business students must also learn to effectively coordinate and link the operations of multiple functions of an organization--a process heavily dependent on cross-team communication. Unfortunately, traditional group projects ignore this aspect of multiple team dependencies and miss out on an important teaching opportunity.

To effectively capture the interdependencies inherent in complex integrated environments, 27 undergraduate business students in an introductory electronic commerce class were asked to work as a single enterprise and establish a fully-licensed e-business. In the interests of time, the students were given a specific marketspace on which to focus--a student-run faculty and course feedback website. This involved, among other things, defining a mission statement, conducting market research, designing and developing a website, applying for a business license, registering a trade name and domain name, and setting up online databases.

TEAM STRUCTURES AND COORDINATION

The medical rotation approach requires that each student group be exposed to every functional area within the business unit. This is achieved by rotating each team between areas every two to three weeks. To ease coordination efforts, team composition was kept constant and all members of a given cohort would rotate as a block to the next function together.

As in true business environments, it is important to construct teams whose composition reflects the skills needed to accomplish a specific task. However, since the teams in this project would be rotating every two weeks, it was critical to ensure that each group had a broad mix of skills that would be useful regardless of the functional area they were assigned in a particular rotational period. For this reason, information was collected from each student through an online form that queried them on their perceived skill set (see Appendix A). This information was then used in combination with the academic objectives of group diversity (both in terms of gender and nationality) to create five interlocked functional teams--Accounting, Web Design and Development, Sales and Advertising, Market Research, and Legal and Ethics (Figure 1).

[FIGURE 1 OMITTED]

Each team was assigned an internal leader, based on the responses received to the question about leadership skills. These five team leaders formed the Executive Strategy Group that would guide team activities and coordinate inter-team communications. The first 15 minutes of each class involved the team leaders presenting a quick oral overview of the status of their group's work to the rest of the class. This allowed every member of the class to have a 360/ view of the project. At the end of each rotational period, the five members of the Executive Strategy Group, along with the course professor, would meet and "hand-off" responsibilities to the incoming team while simultaneously accepting new tasks from the group they were taking over. Table 1 identifies the primary responsibilities of each team.

FUNCTIONAL AREA TASKS

For such a complex project to succeed, a significant amount of advanced planning was required. Given the time-compression that occurs in a university setting, goals and associated tasks for each of the five functional areas needed to be clearly laid out at the beginning of the term. During a given rotation, a team would continue on the task list from where the previous rotational team had left off. This, of course, would often depend on the successful completion of a prerequisite task of another functional area. It was this dependence on other student teams in the project that simulated the cross-functional integration and inter-group communication so important in real-world organizational environments. Table 2 lists sample activities and collaborations for the first rotation of the project (Weeks 1 and 2).

INTRA- AND INTER-GROUP COORDINATION

The coordination of teams is an enabling process that allows for linkages between interdependent groups (Van de Ven, Delbecq, and Koenig, 1976). Typically coordination activities lead to the controlled flow of information and deliverables between members of an organization-in this case, the class e-business. A mechanism of coordination is any administrative device used to achieve integration among different functional groups within an organization (Martinez and Jarillo, 1989). There is a significant volume of research available that examines the nature and role of such mechanisms in a business context. Typically, these mechanisms increase in complexity and cost as organizations grow (Galbraith and Nathanson, 1978; Galbraith and Kazanjian, 1986) and move from simple hierarchies focused on vertical communication to integrating roles and departments that foster lateral coordination activities (Galbraith, 1994).

This project provided the students a number of different integration tools that allowed them to coordinate both internally within their team as well as cross-functionally with other groups. Table 3 summarizes the primary mechanisms utilized for the project.

COMPARISON OF CLASS PROJECTS VS. GROUP ASSIGNMENTS

The primary purpose of this project was to give students the opportunity to experience the dynamics of internal group communications as well as cross-functional integration demands. Major distinctions between Class assignments and Group projects are identified in Table 4.

LIMITATIONS AND CONCLUSIONS

Students reported a very high level of satisfaction with the class project. While the reported satisfaction was high, anonymous student feedback received as part of course evaluations indicated some frustrations with the amount of work involved and the uneven distribution of the load across the period of the term. Since there was no control group used comparing the deliverables of traditional group assignments versus the class e-commerce project, no conclusions can be drawn at this time regarding the relative efficacy of either pedagogical method on performance.

There are, however, a number of benefits to be gained from using the medical rotation approach to projects, including:

* A better simulation of the cross-functional skills needed to excel in true business environments while maintaining the original benefits of traditional group assignments.

* Exposure to all aspects of e-businesses allows students to understand the interdependencies of the various functions within a business

* Developing a real working e-business site creates a sense of ownership among the students and a greater level of peer motivation.

There is an acknowledged need for providing students with greater opportunities to experience the types of team environments that they will be entering upon graduation. Unfortunately, the typical structure of group assignments do not take into the account the integration of activities demanded across various functional teams. This project simulated such an environment while simultaneously providing exposure to all major areas of operating an e-business.

Appendix A: Team Composition Survey

1. On a scale of 1 (very poor) to 7 (exceptional), how would you rate yourself in the following areas?

a. Writing skills

b. Presentation skills

c. Analysis skills

d. People skills

e. Organizational skills

f. Web Design skills

g. Leadership skills

2. What do you see as your main strengths and weaknesses (in the context of this project)

3. Which of the following teams would you like to start with for the project?

a. Accounting

b. Web Design and Development

c. Sales and Advertising

d. Market Research

e. Legal and Ethics

4. On which of the following teams do you think you will have the most impact?

a. Accounting

b. Web Design and Development

c. Sales and Advertising

d. Market Research

e. Legal and Ethics

5. Would you be interested in becoming a team leader?

REFERENCES

Drexler, E.K. (1991), Pergamit, G., and Peterson, C. (1991), Unbounding the Future: The Nanotechnology Revolution, Chapter. 4, HarperCollins Publishing.

Galbraith, J.R. (1994) Competing with Flexible Lateral Organizations, Second Edition, Addison-Wesley Publishing Company.

Galbraith, J.R. and Kazanjian, R.K. (1986), Strategy Implementation: Structure, System and Process, Second Edition, West Publishing Company, St. Paul: Minnesota

Galbraith, J.R. and Nathanson, D.A. (1978), Strategy Implementation: The Role of Structure and Process, West Publishing Company, St. Paul: Minnesota.

Keys, A.C. (2003), Using Group Projects in MIS: Strategies for Instruction and Management, Journal of Computer Information Systems, Spring, 18-26.

Martinez, J.I. and Jarillo, J.C. (1989), The Evolution of Research on Coordination Mechanisms in Multinational Corporations, Journal of International Business Studies, 20(2), .489-514.

Mello, J.A. (1993), Improving Individual Member Accountability in Small Group Settings, Journal of Management Education, 17(:2), 253-259.

Smart, K.L., & Barnum, C. M. (2000), Communication in Cross-Functional Teams: Introduction to Special Issue, Technical Communications Online, 47(:1), February.

Van de Ven, A., Delbecq, H. and Koenig, R. (1976), Determinants of Coordination Modes Within Organizations, American Sociological Review, April, 322-338.

ENDNOTES

(1) http://www.surgery.arizona.edu/education/residency-programs/ general-surgery/program-overview.htm

Madhu T. Rao, Seattle University

Diane Lockwood, Seattle University

Table 1: Team Responsibilities

Team Responsibilities

Accounting Collection and disbursement of project funds,
 while maintaining detailed records with an
 appropriate business accounting software
 package.

Web Design and Design, development, and maintenance of the
Development company website. This includes, but is not
 limited to, domain registration, web host
 selection, website design and development, and
 support for online survey development and
 testing.

Sales and Advertising Determining appropriate advertising mix as
 well as the development of on- and off-campus
 collaboration with third-party establishments.

Market Research Design, development, collection, and analysis
 of student and faculty surveys.

Legal and Ethics Application for necessary state and city
 business licensing, trademark and intellectual
 property issues, student privacy and
 university regulations.

Executive Strategy Composed of five team leaders. Responsible for
Group long-term strategic direction of enterprise as
 well as coordination of cross-functional
 interactions.

Table 2: Sample Activities and Cross-functional Collaborations for
Rotation 1 (Weeks 1 and 2)

 Collaborate
Team Activities With

All teams and members Define mission statement
 Finalize company name

Accounting (ACTG) Research potential banks L&E
 Collect project checks L&E
 and issue receipts
 Research accounting WDD
 software

Web Design and Register domain name ACCTG
Development (WDD) Research and select web ACTG
 hosting organization
 Set up student accounts
 for all participants

Sales and Advertising (S&A) Research potential
 advertising outlets
 Determine resource needs ACTG
 for advertising
 campaign
 Design company logo and WDD; L&E
 tag line
Market Research (MR) Begin design and WDD; S&A
 development of online
 survey

Legal and Ethics (L&E) Apply for necessary ACCTG
 business licenses
 Research business
 insurance needs
 Register for trademarks ACCTG

Table 3: Intra- and Inter-Group Coordination Mechanisms

Coordination Mechanism Coordination Mode

Discussion Boards Intra-group

Shared Portal Inter-group

Class Briefs Inter-group

Rotation Meetings of Inter-group
Executive Strategy Group

Coordination Mechanism Description

Discussion Boards A central online site assigned to a
 functional area, rather than a team. Teams
 switch discussion boards when rotating to
 new area, thus ensuring continuity and
 memory of discussions occurring within a
 function.

Shared Portal A document sharing portal that allows for
 deliverables to be placed at a central
 server. All teams have access to the same
 documents and may access and modify
 documents as needed. Allows for greater
 version control as well as a 360/ view of
 project.

Class Briefs Team leaders present current status of
 project to other project members at
 beginning of class. Allows for lateral
 communications as well as a 360/ view of
 project.

Rotation Meetings of The five team leaders meet to organize hand-
Executive Strategy Group off to next team. Discuss functional
 objectives for the new rotation.

Table 4: Comparison of Class Projects versus Traditional Group
Assignments

CLASS PROJECT GROUP ASSIGNMENT

Communication: offers skill Offers skill development in
development in both intra- and primarily intra-personal
interpersonal communications communications

Functional Area Knowledge: forces Tends to focus on the development
in-depth knowledge of several of specific skills areas (e.g.,
functional areas through rotations marketing student does marketing
 part, accounting does accounting,
 etc.)

Scale & Complexity: much larger Smaller, less complex, emphasis on
and mirrors complexity of a real intra-group coordination
world business cross-functional
project

Task Integration: increases Increases awareness of intra-group
awareness of inter-group task task dependencies
dependencies

Project Coordination: much more Nonexistent inter-group task
complex inter-group coordination coordination requirements
requirements

Student Workload: uneven More even distribution of student
distribution of work load over the and instructor work load because
term because of task dependencies inter-group task dependencies are
(i.e., one group has to wait for minimized
the output of the antecedent
group)