Getting More out of Team Projects: Incentivizing Leadership to Enhance Performance

This study addresses changes in student perceptions when team leaders are incentivized. Although the benefits of groupwork have been thoroughly studied and documented, minimizing dysfunctional teamwork may prove difficult because of leadership incentives, social loafing, and organizational justice implications. Using an innovative pedagogical design, this study found that team members experienced fewer dysfunctional behaviors, and teams with incentivized leaders had better performance. These findings may have implications for management educators.