This class has made relatively extensive use of teams in the learning process. I have observed the output of your team efforts, but have had little opportunity to observe the team process within your groups. A full evaluation of the team’s effectiveness requires an assessment of the process in addition to the output.

Student teams have limitations. Students who do not wish to participate as full and effective members of their team can rarely be forced to do so. The remaining members are forced to either accept that their team will produce substandard output, or to do all of the work themselves in order to protect the quality of the team’s output. That is neither fair, nor what the instructor intends.

One of the desired outcomes of team experiences is that students will gain experience in giving honest feedback to co-workers on the quality of the efforts they contribute to group work. No one’s job is at stake in the evaluation I ask you to do in this class, but in practice this can be the case. Peer evaluation is a serious responsibility, not to be done casually or frivolously. Giving a good evaluation to a person who has not carried their share sends them the message that this behavior is allowed and even encouraged. That is never good for the health of teams or organizations.

Long experience and observation have borne out the view that team members always vary in both their ability to contribute and their willingness to do so. Therefore, all of the evaluations you will perform here are in the form of Rankings. You must distinguish between your teammates, even though the differences themselves may be very small.

I provide a series of evaluation scales, with definitions, on the following pages. Please evaluate each of your team members and yourself as honestly and fairly as you can, using the scales provided. Finally, I will ask you to allocate an amount of money among the members of your team, yourself included, based on the overall contribution to the various team projects. BE SURE TO CHECK ALL SCALES. The program will not allow you to submit your evaluation until all scales are checked.

Your evaluations are private, and I will not discuss them with anyone. Your objective feedback is important to me, and the best opportunity you will have to objectively value the contributions of individuals to your team's performance.

Definitions:

Agree