Leadership emergence in engineering design teams

Area of Science:

• Social Psychology
• Organizational Behavior
• Complexity Science

Background:

• Leadership emergence is a key aspect of group dynamics and social structure.
• Previous research suggests a swallowtail catastrophe model describes emerging group structures.
• Control parameters of this model vary based on group task type (e.g., creative problem solving, production).

Purpose of the Study:

• To further investigate leadership emergence in creative problem-solving groups.
• To test the applicability of the swallowtail catastrophe model in a long-term, real-world task context.
• To identify key control variables influencing leadership emergence in such groups.

Main Methods:

• Engineering students worked in groups (4-5 people) for several months on a real-world design-build-test project.
• Participants completed a questionnaire at the 14th week to identify perceived leadership.
• Statistical analysis compared a swallowtail catastrophe model against a linear model.

Main Results:

• The swallowtail catastrophe model (R² = 0.76) significantly outperformed the linear model (R² = 0.55) in predicting leadership emergence.
• Key control variables identified were task control, individual creative contributions, and facilitating others' creativity.

Conclusions:

• The swallowtail catastrophe model provides a robust framework for understanding leadership emergence in complex, creative group tasks.
• Task control and creative facilitation are critical factors in leadership emergence within these groups.