Communication Adjustment in Engineering Professional and Student Project Meetings

Area of Science:

• Organizational Behavior
• Team Dynamics
• Communication Studies

Background:

• Effective communication is crucial for project team success.
• Understanding member responses to communication in meetings is vital.
• The impact of communication on adopted team roles requires further investigation.

Purpose of the Study:

• To explore how project team members adjust communication and team roles during meetings.
• To present a new theory on team behavior, role adoption, and communication changes.
• To provide insights for managers on understanding and managing team dynamics.

Main Methods:

• Observational data collected from engineering organizations and university student teams.
• Utilized a mixed-methods approach including observations, questionnaires, and interviews.
• Employed the interaction diagram method for recording observations.

Main Results:

• Participants dynamically adjusted communication styles based on others' behavior and meeting contexts.
• Behavioral adjustments occurred at micro (conversational grounding), mezzo (emotional/rational regulation), and macro (over time) levels.
• A novel theory explains team role adoption and communication changes driven by rational and emotional regulation.

Conclusions:

• Team roles are fluid and change dynamically across organizational, project, and meeting levels.
• Rational and emotional regulation significantly influence role adoption in project meetings.
• Findings offer practical applications for enhancing team management and understanding project dynamics.