Paper ID #34146

Development of Leadership and Communication Skills in an ExperientialLearning Project Management Course

Ms. Angie Moussa , University of Massachusetts Lowell

Angie Moussa is a recent graduate of the University of Massachusetts Lowell, receiving her Bachelor’sDegree in Psychology with a concentration in Clinical Psychology. She graduated Summa Cum Laudewith Distinction from the Honors College.

Dr. Yanfen Li, University of Massachusetts Lowell

Yanfen Li is an Assistant Teaching Professor at the University of Massachusetts Lowell. She receivedher PhD in Bioengineering from the University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign. Her current research isin engineering education with a focus on curriculum development and retention of female and minoritystudents in engineering.

c©American Society for Engineering Education, 2021

Development of Leadership and Communication Skills in an Experiential Learning Project

Management Course

Abstract

Engineering students are equipped with technical knowledge and skills in order to solve

real-world problems. However, it has become increasingly clear that engineering students also

require training in non-technical skills beyond the technical knowledge and analytical skills

traditionally taught in engineering undergraduate problems. These non-technical skills allow

students to understand the social, political, economic, cultural, environmental, and ethical aspects

of their future jobs[1]. The development of leadership is especially important for students who

wish to pursue management careers including project management (PM) which is a highly

needed and promising career path. Few undergraduate students are exposed to PM during their

undergraduate curriculum, and most PM courses are based on literature and reading. The

National Research Council Board on Engineering education noted that undergraduate curriculum

needs to be reformed in order for undergraduates to get extensive exposure to interdisciplinary,

hands-on skills, creative design, and systems thinking[2]. At the University of Massachusetts

Lowell, an experiential learning project management course was developed in order to introduce

students to PM and to develop their leadership skills. In this course, upper-level Biomedical

Engineering students in a PM course are each paired with 3-4 first-year students in an

Introduction to Biomedical Engineering course as the team goes through a semester long project

to design, research, and prototype a need. These PMs are responsible for goal setting, planning,

risk assessment, and conflict management.

In this paper, the experiences of twenty-four PMs are analyzed qualitatively via analysis

of end-of semester reflection assignments. Common themes that emerged included the need for

good communication, defining the PM’s roles and responsibilities, the need for organization, the

need to be adaptable to organic group dynamics, and the friend/leader balance.

Introduction

Engineering students are equipped with technical knowledge and skills in order to solve

real-world problems. However, it has become increasingly clear that engineering students also

require training in non-technical skills beyond the technical knowledge and analytical skills

traditionally taught in engineering undergraduate problems. These non-technical skills allow

students to understand the social, political, economic, cultural, environmental, and ethical aspects

of their future jobs[1]. Among these skills, engineering leadership has been highlighted as an

important skillset in industry [3], [4] and is a required learning objective for program

accreditation [5], [6].

Outside of engineering, models of leadership have been extensively researched for

centuries [7], [8]. Most models of leadership incorporate a combination of collaborative, ethical,

and inspirational skills which contribute to one’s confidence in their ability to lead [9]. It has

been shown that individual differences play a role in the success of leadership development

including the motivation to lead [10], learning orientation [11], individual and collective

development [12], and developmental readiness [13]. Thus, leadership skills may be hard to

acquire without social skills, motivation, or skills. The Skills Theory of Leadership states that

leadership is gained through learned skills, a developed leadership style, and acquired knowledge

[14]–[16]. The individuals’ abilities, their personality, and their motivation all influence the

various experiences they have and the skills they can develop as a result of that experience [17].

The model proposes that leader’s performance is based on three key types of skills: complex

problem solving, solution construction, and social judgement. Complex problem solving refers to

an individual’s capability for solving ill-defined problems including defining the problem,

gathering information, and formulating ideas. Solution construction refers to creating viable

solutions that work within the context of the situation and organization. Lastly, social skills refer

to the individual’s ability to convince others to work toward the solution. In this case, social

skills include traditional skills such as persuasion and negotiation, but also skills such as

judgement and decision making[16].

Within engineering, leadership is essential for several career paths and engineering

projects often rely on teams of engineers from multiple disciplines working together. However,

while engineering leadership is extensively researched, various definitions exist and

“engineering leadership” is not as clearly defined in academic scholarship. Paul, Sen, and Wyatt

complied results from several studies to propose a central definition of engineering leadership as

requiring technical expertise, authenticity, personal effectiveness, and the ability to synthesize

diverse expertise and skillsets[18]. To understand the industrial context, Hartmann and Jahren

discussed what companies are looking for when looking for leadership skills in their applicants.

From these interviews, several key themes arose including strong communication, teamwork,

and interpersonal interaction skills.

The development of leadership is especially important for students who wish to pursue

management careers such as project management (PM) which requires engineers to have strong

managerial and interpersonal skills alongside their substantive knowledge of the discipline’s

intricacies. Typically, project managers (PMs) are responsible for holding stability and control

within the group, embracing the design process, and intuitively solving problems [19]. Global

spending on projects accounts for billions of dollars annually, yet most project management

efforts fail [20]. Several studies have revealed that PMs have significant impact on project

successes [21], [22]. There is a critical relationship between project managers’ leadership style

and its’ influence on the performance of a project, particularly through the collaboration of

teamwork and communication [22]. Another recent study suggests that project success can be

achieved with stronger collaboration, team cohesiveness, and team communication [21]. It has

been shown that when project fail, they often fail to meet time and cost targets due to poor

human relations, poor productivity, and failing to meet time constraints [23]. Therefore, simply

having a PM is not enough; students must be adequately trained in soft skills such as

communication, teamwork, and management in order to ensure future successes.

While PM is a promising career, many undergraduate students are not aware of this

promising career option and many institutions lack PM programs [24]. Those institutions that do

teach PM to their students often cover PM as part of a larger lecture-based course or in dedicated

PM courses which are often theory based. Few institutions teach PM knowledge by offering

experiential learning opportunities and oftentimes, the “soft skills” – like communication,

teamwork, and leadership – that are necessary for successful PM are not directly taught in the

engineering classroom instruction.

Applied Project Management Course

At the University of Massachusetts Lowell, an upper-level course, Application in Project

Management and Mentorship in BME, was developed to be taught in conjunction with a first-

year engineering course, Introduction to Biomedical Engineering. In this PM course, junior and

seniors in BME learn about project management as a possible career in engineering by serving as

PMs of a team of three to four students in the Intro course as they go through a semester long

design project. This PM course is designed to mimic a business. Students completed an

application to apply for their role as PM. The course (12 students per semester) met twice a week

(1.5 hours per class) for the first two weeks where PMs learned about PM as a career option,

engineering projects in general, different management styles, and the project lifecycle. In week

three, PMs helped assign first-year students to teams based on goals, student availabilities, and

working styles. Starting week four, the PM course met once a week and course meeting times are

treated as business meetings where each PM gave an update on the status of their team and

project. The other weekly course meeting time was reserved for each PM to meet with their

teams. The PMs were responsible for goal setting, assigning tasks, resource management,

running meetings, and conflict management.

Throughout the semester, additional topics such as Gantt charts, goal setting, data

management, and conflict resolution were introduced as needed. Typically, these topics are

introduced after a PM discusses a need for resources or points of confusion about their team

during a weekly update. PMs brainstorm solutions together and the instructor will provide

resources as needed. The PMs are free to use or not use any of the given resources and ideas,

depending on the status on their team. These PMs had the opportunity to provide valuable

insights to the design of the Intro course and gave feedback to their groups’ semester project.

PMs were specifically instructed to only advise on the project and not give answers on the

technical information or work on the project themselves. Instead, PMs asked questions and

provided guidance. Both first-year students and upperclassmen can benefit through this

collaboration, with first-year students gaining knowledge from experienced upperclassmen,

while the upperclassmen gain leadership and organizational skills that can be useful in industry.

For this study, we aim to explore the influence of this PM experiential learning course on

the leadership development of upper-level engineering undergraduate students. Qualitative data

was obtained by analyzing end-of-semester student reflection assignments and observing what

skills students emphasized as important in their role as a project manager. An analysis was

performed to determine whether students gained essential leadership skills as described by the

Skills Theory of Leadership[15] and definitions of engineering leadership [18].

Methods

Participants: Participants in this study included twenty-four students at the University of

Massachusetts Lowell who took the Applied Project Management in BME course either in Fall

2019 (12 students) or Fall 2020 (12 students).

Reflection Assignment Project Managers completed a reflection assignment following

completion of the course. Students were asked to answer several prompts and the following

question prompts were used for qualitative data analysis.

Table 1: Reflection Assignments Questions Used for Qualitative Analysis

Question

Number

Question

1 What was your group dynamic like? Did your group dynamics

change throughout the course? If yes, please describe

2 What would you do differently if you were to do this again?

3 What advice do you have for a future student that is starting out as a

PM in your role?

4 What do you think are your strength and weaknesses as a PM?

Data Analysis NVivo was used to analyze the student writing in the reflection assignments. All

reflections were inputted into NVivo for analysis. First, nodes were created for every question

prompt. Then, sub-nodes were created of emerging themes from the reflection writing. These

nodes and sub-nodes were then used to generate Word Clouds and Tree Maps on Nvivo to

visualize the qualitative data of student reflections. For generation of word clouds, words were

grouped by stemmed words and common words from the prompt including project, group, and

groups were removed from analysis.

Results and Discussion

In order to understand the impact of the experiential learning PM course, student

reflections were analyzed to determine whether students emphasized the skills discussed in Skills

Theory of Leadership (complex problem solving, solution construction, and social judgement) or

as discussed by hiring companies (strong communication, teamwork, and interpersonal

interaction skills). Twenty-four reflection assignments (see Table 1 for assignment questions)

from Fall 2019 (12 students) and Fall 2020 (12 students) were analyzed with NVivo. Courses in

both semesters were taught by the same instructor in the same format. Fall 2019 was conducted

in a face-to-face environment and Fall 2020 was conducted in a virtual environment. An analysis

of the reflection assigned showed no difference in results between the two semesters, thus the

two semesters are combined for data analysis and discussion.

Group Dynamics

The most prevalent themes in student reflections were communication and team

dynamics. When upperclassmen PMs were asked “What was your group dynamic like? Did your

group dynamics change throughout the course? If yes, please describe.”, most students talked

about communication in their teams, both in meetings and via email (Fig. 1). Some PMs

described the importance of having good communication to increase productivity of their team

while others talked about the lack of sound communication and the resulting struggles. PMs

described their struggles with how to obtain equal participation from all group members during

meetings and how to involve and include shy students’ opinions. Several students voiced concern

about a subset of their team doing more of the work and dominating the conversation and another

subset of members being more passive or not participating. These reflections may indicate a

positive outcome in the development of students’ leadership skills where communication is

critical for project success and for being a good leader [25].

The PMs noted changes in team dynamics throughout the semester. Most teams started

with shy students and communication was a challenge. However, as students became more

comfortable with each other and the PMs understood their team members more, communication

and productivity increased. One PM noted “Over the course of the semester, the dynamic

changed dramatically. The members of my group became more outspoken, eager to accomplish

work and seemed more accountable for their responsibilities.”

It was evident that PMs were learning about their roles in a social context and learning

how to make social judgments. Many PMs discussed how they developed their own roles within

the teams during the semester. Topics discussed included the PMs’ responsibilities in driving

team dynamics and the need to adapt to the team. One student noted “[…] my observations

indicate that work was organically distributed rather than assigned. I planned to involve myself

in work delegation if this was an issue, however the team seemed self-motivated and cooperative

and did not necessitate it.” While this PM knew they were responsible for work delegation, they

were able to adapt to the organic team dynamic and adjust their expectations – an essential

ability for a successful leader and PM.

The course was uniquely designed to aid PMs in making decisions and in learning how to

adapt to the social needs of the team. The PMs were given several resources throughout the

semester on goal setting, conflict resolution, etc. However, the PMs were not required to use

these resources. Because of this, PMs had to make decisions on what resource to use and when.

One project manager spoke to this experience and how their choice changes the team dynamic.

“Overtime as the workload for other classes increased, I did notice the team struggling a

little bit to manage the project work on top of other classes. This became an issue at first as there

was not a ton to talk about during meetings since not a ton of project work had been completed

prior to the meetings. However, we overcame this by creating a Gantt chart as a team with

target dates earlier than the due dates to ensure that we used meeting time wisely.”

Another PM noted the importance of their own attitudes and actions on team dynamics

“[…]at the start of the semester I got nervous when I first met the team and created a rocky start

due to the nervousness not allowing me to adequately state the objectives or what I expected

from them.”

Figure 1: Word cloud of student reflections on their team dynamics.

Lessons Learned

To further assess what skills and knowledge PMs gained from their course experience,

PMs were asked “What would you do differently if you were to do this again?” and “What

advice do you have for a future student that is starting out as a PM in your role?”. There were

many prominent themes across student reflections. First, a common theme was the need to stay

organized, though how to stay organized was varied and may reflect on the establishment of

PMs’ leadership styles. Some PMs believed that having a structured plan before meetings would

help create success for future project managers, whereas other PMs thought that focusing on the

big picture and establishing milestones and key deadlines was more important. One student noted

“Staying organized should be a priority, since so many deadlines approach and can be difficult

to manage if you also have your own priorities to deal with. Setting early deadlines is a good

tactic, especially for procrastinators (like my group).” Another student reflected the same

sentiment and stated, “If I were to be a project manager again the first thing, I would do

differently would be to be more organized.” Additional discussion indicated this establishment of

students’ future leadership style. Most of the PMs discussed the importance of meeting weekly to

go over deadlines and plan for their project. A few responses discussed the importance of a good

form of communication such as email or text messaging. A PM noted “I would be sure to better

understand the group dynamics and make sure to get feedback on my communication.” Another

PM noted “I need to improve on the communication between myself and the students, since I felt

like I created the wrong dynamic at the beginning of the year of being too friendly.”

The PMs also spoke to several hard balances to figure out when being a leader. The first

is of assisting team members versus completing the work for them. They emphasized the

importance of guiding the team and giving suggestions rather than completing the work for them.

One PM noted “another word of advice is don’t do the work for them, no matter how much you

really want to.” Another hard balance was between being a friend and being a project manager,

which was found in six reflections. These PMs advised future students to draw clear lines in the

relationship and differentiate themselves from the group they are managing. One of the responses

included the importance of establishing boundaries with their team members. This is an

important lesson to learn about leadership and is an experience not often found in other

leadership opportunities on university campuses.

Lastly, engaging and getting to know team members was another theme (seven different

reflections). A few responses stated that keeping the team engaged was essential to group

success. Other reflections mentioned the importance of encouraging team members and

increasing motivation to creating a sense of comfort where team members are able to express

their opinions. These sentiments are in line with the need for good social judgement skills from

leaders[15].

Strength and Weaknesses

Upperclassmen PMs were asked “What do you think your strengths are as a PM?”. The

most prevalent theme was the ability for Project Managers to relate to their team members. Most

PMs were confident in their ability to foster an environment where individuals are comfortable

sharing ideas and did not feel intimated when asking questions. Similarly, many PMs discussed

their ability to be supportive and understanding of their groupmates. Another popular theme was

the acquisition of knowledge by PM’s. There were many varying responses for this theme. A few

PMs mentioned their strong ability to help their group stay on task throughout the semester.

Other PMs mentioned their strong ability in helping their team members defining and refining

ideas. Similarly, a few PMs mentioned that their aptitude for brainstorming and prior technical

knowledge helped contribute to their team’s successes.

When discussing strengths and weaknesses, communication was also a major topic. On

the strength side, PMs commented on their ability to give reminders to their team members and

to keep the group on task. One PM noted “I always reminded them of their due dates for their

project related assignments. I wanted to make sure everyone was putting effort in equally for the

different project stages”. A few other PMs mentioned the importance of running meetings

efficiently. Most of the PM answers for this question mentioned their ability in assisting the

group to stay on task and the importance of reminders when deadlines were approaching. In this

similar vein, PMs talked about their ability to be responsive to their team members or being able

to respond or give feedback in a timely manner. One of the PMs mentioned that they felt it was

their job to ensure the team did not wait around for an answer. Some PMs mentioned

communication as their weakness rather than their strength. Several PMs mentioned they would

have liked to meet with their group more than once a week or that they needed to discuss group

milestones and progress more clearly.

One PM mentioned the importance of organization. This PM stated “being able to

organize scheduling and files was extremely helpful”. This PM felt that organization led to team

success. Not only was this PM able to stay organized but also allowed their team members to be

up to date on their deadlines. Another PM mentioned their ability to have good time

management. This PM mentioned that setting an earlier deadline for assignments was helpful in

reviewing and fixing any mistakes before the final submission. This was an interesting response

as some PM’s felt their groups were rushing last minute in completing the assignment for the

deadlines. Some PMs noted time management as their weakness. One PM mentioned that he had

a very busy schedule and was not able to dedicate more of his time being a PM. Several students

mentioned that they struggled with getting feedback back to team members within 24 hours, a

rule that they had set themselves.

In terms of weaknesses, the most prevalent theme was the PMs being too lenient. Several

PMs thought that they instilled the wrong dynamic in the beginning of the year by being too

friendly. This resulted in team members taking them less seriously. A few PM’s mentioned the

difficulty of balancing the role of a PM and a friend. One PM’s response stated “I had a hard

time telling my group that something was not correct or didn’t look good. I thought they would

think I’m being too hard on them and get annoyed”. At the same time, PMs struggled with

finding the balance between guiding rather than completing the work for them. Some PMs felt

they unintentionally projected their ideas onto the group whereas other PMs found it difficult to

steer the project in the direction they felt it had to go. Most PMs mentioned they had to remind

themselves that it was not their project and they needed to be more hands-off.

Figure 5: Word cloud of student reflections on their strength and weaknesses as a PM.

Conclusion

Overall, the creation of an experiential Applied Project Management course allowed

students to explore their own management and leadership styles. From reflections, a few

common themes emerged as the main take-aways of this experience. First, students realized the

importance of communication, both in frequency, modality, and content. Second, students

realized the importance of organization and time management. Lastly, they realized the impact of

their leadership style on team dynamics and workflow. These findings directly match the skills

that companies are looking for and give students a unique experience in a promising career. An

analysis on the influence of these PMs on first-year students’ teamwork experiences can be

found in reference [26]. Future work is needed to measure the development of students’

leadership skills in a more quantitative manner and analysis is needed in understanding the

impact of this course on students’ complex problem-solving skills and solution construction in

addition to softer skills such as communication and social judgement.

References

[1] ASME, “2028 Vision for Mechanical Engineering,” New York, 2008. Accessed: Apr. 19,

2021. [Online]. Available: www.asme.org.

[2] “Achieving BEEd’s Vision of the Engineering Education System,” in Engineering

education: Designing an adaptive system, Washington: National Academy Press, 1995.

[3] J. Dugan and S. Komives, “Developing leadership capacity in college students,” Multi-

Institutional Study Leadersh. A Proj. Natl. Clear. Leadersh. Programs, 2007.

[4] B. Ahn, M. F. Cox, J. London, O. Cekic, and J. Zhu, “Creating an instrument to measure

leadership, change, and synthesis in engineering undergraduates,” J. Eng. Educ., 2014,

doi: 10.1002/jee.20036.

[5] “ABET | ABET Accreditation.” https://www.abet.org/ (accessed Mar. 08, 2021).

[6] “National Academy of Engineering.” https://www.nae.edu/ (accessed Mar. 10, 2021).

[7] S. Faris, K. McMahon, and C. Outcalt, Developing Non-hierarchical Leadership on

Campus: Case Studies and Best Practices in Higher Educationitle. United Kingdom:

Greenwood Press, 2001.

[8] S. Gumus, M. S. Bellibas, M. Esen, and E. Gumus, “A systematic review of studies on

leadership models in educational research from 1980 to 2014,” Educ. Manag. Adm.

Leadersh., vol. 46, no. 1, 2018, doi: 10.1177/1741143216659296.

[9] D. Rosch, “Effects of Classroom-Based Team Experiences on Undergraduate Student

Leadership Development: When Practice Does Not Make Perfect.,” J. Leadersh. Educ.,

vol. 14, no. 3, pp. 104–118, 2015.

[10] K. Y. Chan and F. Drasgow, “Toward a theory of individual differences and leadership:

Understanding the motivation to lead,” J. Appl. Psychol., vol. 86, no. 3, pp. 481–498,

2001, doi: 10.1037/0021-9010.86.3.481.

[11] D. S. DeRue and N. Wellman, “Developing Leaders via Experience: The Role of

Developmental Challenge, Learning Orientation, and Feedback Availability,” J. Appl.

Psychol., vol. 94, no. 4, pp. 859–875, 2009, doi: 10.1037/a0015317.

[12] D. V. Day and M. M. Harrison, “A multilevel, identity-based approach to leadership

development,” Hum. Resour. Manag. Rev., vol. 17, no. 4, pp. 360–373, Dec. 2007, doi:

10.1016/j.hrmr.2007.08.007.

[13] B. J. Avolio and S. T. Hannah, “Developmental readiness: Accelerating leader

development,” Consult. Psychol. J. Pract. Res., vol. 60, no. 4, pp. 331–347, 2008, doi:

10.1037/1065-9293.60.4.331.

[14] R. N. Amanchukwu, G. J. Stanley, and N. P. Ololube, “A Review of Leadership Theories,

Principles and Styles and Their Relevance to Educational Management,” Management,

vol. 5, no. 1, pp. 6–14, 2015, doi: 10.5923/j.mm.20150501.02.

[15] M. D. Mumford, S. J. Zaccaro, M. S. Connelly, and M. A. Marks, “Leadership skills:

Conclusions and future directions,” Leadersh. Q., vol. 11, no. 1, pp. 155–170, 2000, doi:

10.1016/s1048-9843(99)00047-8.

[16] S. J. Zaccaro, J. A. Gilbert, K. K. Thor, and M. D. Mumford, “Leadership and social

intelligence: Linking social perspectiveness and behavioral flexibility to leader

effectiveness,” Leadersh. Q., vol. 2, pp. 317–331, 1991, doi: 10.1016/1048-

9843(91)90018-W.

[17] M. D. Mumford, S. J. Zaccaro, F. D. Harding, T. O. Jacobs, and E. A. Fleishman,

“Leadership skills for a changing world: Solving complex social problems,” Leadersh. Q.,

vol. 11, no. 1, pp. 11–35, 2000, doi: 10.1016/S1048-9843(99)00041-7.

[18] R. Paul, A. Sen, and E. Wyatt, “What is engineering leadership? A proposed definition,”

ASEE Annu. Conf. Expo. Conf. Proc., 2018, doi: 10.18260/1-2--30137.

[19] A. Riaz, M. M. Tahir, and A. Noor, “Leadership is Vital for Project Managers to Achieve

Project Efficacy,” Res. J. Recent Sci., vol. 2, no. 6, pp. 99–102, 2013.

[20] V. S. Anantatmula, “Project manager leadership role in improving project performance,”

Eng. Manag. J., vol. 22, no. 1, pp. 13–22, 2010, doi: 10.1080/10429247.2010.11431849.

[21] L. R. Yang, C. F. Huang, and K. S. Wu, “The association among project manager’s

leadership style, teamwork and project success,” Int. J. Proj. Manag., 2011, doi:

10.1016/j.ijproman.2010.03.006.

[22] J. Jiang, “The Study of the Relationship between Leadership Style and Project Success,”

Am. J. Trade Policy, vol. 1, no. 1, pp. 51–55, 2014, doi: 10.18034/ajtp.v1i1.361.

[23] H. Kerzner, Project Management: a Systems Approach to Planning, Scheduling, and

Controlling, 13th ed. Wiley, 2017.

[24] H. L. Reif and M. Mitri, “How university professors teach project management for

information systems,” Commun. ACM, vol. 48, no. 8, pp. 134–136, 2005, doi:

10.1145/1076211.1076249.

[25] H. Frank Cervone, “Effective communication for project success,” OCLC Syst. Serv. Int.

Digit. Libr. Perspect., vol. 30, no. 2, pp. 74–77, 2014, doi: 10.1108/OCLC-02-2014-0014.

[26] M. L. Fajarillo, A. Moussa, and Y. Li, “Impacting Team-Based Learning of First-Year

Engineering College Students via the creation of an Upperclassmen Project Management

Course,” ASEE Annu. Conf. Expo. Conf. Proc., 2021.