2024 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Benchmarking a Foundation for Improving Psychological Safety in Teams

Presented at Engineering, Ethics, and Leadership

Psychological safety is emerging in the literature as a gateway to creating high performing teams and high team satisfaction. Studies have demonstrated that psychological safety is a key ingredient in the ability of teams to perform to a higher degree than they otherwise would be able to. In this research, we continue to expand the assessment of psychological safety in senior capstone teams to include data from engineering programs across four different institutions to provide a sense of the experiences on capstone design teams and impacts interventions may have. We also begin to explore approaches to improve psychological safety in senior capstone teams by focusing on improving students’ awareness of their ethics (the principles that guide their choices). The approaches include exploring the connection between personal values, personal story, and principles (or personal ethics) and students’ behaviors that can affect psychological safety on teams.

Authors

Dr. Michelle Marincel Payne Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology [biography]

Dr. Michelle Marincel Payne is an Associate Professor in the Civil and Environmental Engineering at Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology. She earned her Ph.D. in Environmental Engineering from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, her M.S. in Environmental Engineering from Missouri University of Science and Technology, and her B.S. in Nuclear Engineering from the University of Missouri-Rolla (same school, different name). At Rose-Hulman, Michelle is leading a project to use story as a way to allow students to develop their engineering identity, and a project to improve teaming by teaching psychological safety in engineering education curricula. Michelle also mentors undergraduate researchers to investigate the removal of stormwater pollutants in engineered wetlands, and has a project to improve undergraduate student training for and exposure to research opportunities. Michelle is a current NSF ASCEND Fellow, a current KEEN Fellow, was a 2018 ExCEEd Fellow, and was recognized as the 2019 ASCE Daniel V. Terrell Awardee.
Dr. Kenneth W. Lamb P.E. California State Polytechnic University, Pomona [biography]

Kenneth is a Professor of Civil Engineering at Cal Poly Pomona and a licensed Professional Engineer in Nevada with experience working on a variety of water, stormwater, and wastewater system projects. He is also the Faculty Director of the Student Innovation Idea Labs at Cal Poly Pomona, which oversees the campus startup programming and maker spaces.
Mr. Seth Claberon Sullivan Texas A&M University [biography]

Seth Sullivan is the Director of the Zachry Leadership Program in the College of Engineering at Texas A&M University. Prior to joining the university, he worked in consulting in the private sector and as an analyst in the U.S. Government. Heâ€™s earned

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