The Influence of Personality Factors on Design Group Work Outcomes

摘要

New product development is an engineering activity that uses highly educated specialist workers that manipulate knowledge in an environment that networks the activities of many disciplines. Since product development occurs in social environments that involve the complexity of human behavior, there can be alignment between design team member personality and design project outcomes, although a given situation will still evoke unique personal responses. An extensive analysis of design group outcomes was undertaken on 78 teams composed of over 427 individuals to determine if personality predicts design outcome variation. Personality measures were collected using Gough's Adjective Checklist over four years from students enrolled in a fourth year capstone design course. The personality factors were compared to the team grade component of their capstone design project course to determine which personality measures are most closely associated with the knowledge management activities important to design of locating, generating, and sharing of knowledge. Significant Adjective Checklist personality attributes include the Creative Personality Score, the Military Leadership Score, and Intraception.