Keywords

1 Introduction

1.1 Conceptual Framework

The importance of teams has stimulated considerable interest in recent years. Effective teamwork is a major contributor for better outcomes in a game, an organization or a project. The attributes of an effective team are a shared vision, an informal atmosphere, participation of each team member, effective listening, functional conflict, consensus for important decisions, open communication, clarity of role, shared leadership and diversity of team-player styles. A high level of participation of every member is usually considered an effective characteristic but over involvement can at times lead to little or no progress towards achieving the team’s goals and hence, calls for introspection. A new structure as a team is not enough. Members in the gaming team need to understand the key elements of what it means to be in a team and require direction and facilitation for team dynamics.

When equipped with the appropriate tactics and resources, team members can make their teams successful. The major differences between a team and a traditional work group are the interdependent nature of the members’ work and their joint accountability. There is a need to adjust some of the processes to ensure overall alignment with the team structure. For example, joint accountability runs counter to the individual player’s performance rewards and incentives that many teams favour. Team members must understand the responsibilities accompanying team membership. Individual influence refers to the altering of others’ thoughts, feelings and behaviours [1]. Each member’s influence on team decisions is critical for overall team performance because it is only through mutual influence and the members’ ideas which are integrated into decision making of the team and implemented through team actions [2].

There are various types of teams and the basic elements of participation are common in most of them. To become an effective team player, members must be active. Passive membership in no way can contribute to the team’s successful performance. Gaming teams realize performance benefits that can be the integration of diverse perspectives due to the players’ heterogeneous backgrounds [3]. Individual characteristics such as task competence and behaviours could influence the team’s tactics [1]. Earning trust is a central footing for teams because without a trusting environment, members cannot accomplish their goals. In a game, team members cannot be jointly accountable in an environment that lacks trust.

It is the responsibility of all the players to create and foster a trusting environment. Effective team players first give trust to get trust. Too often, players set the entire team up for loss when they do not trust their fellow members and are not trustworthy themselves. Nurturing a trusting environment in a game requires opening up and becoming susceptible to accept each other. It is easier to play well when team members know that their fellow members are with them. Players may face insecure situations while playing a new game. They often seek relationships with members who can mentor and help them to be ready for the surprises they could face in the new context [4].

Social interaction becomes important because of the role played by team members in shaping identities of the new members [5]. Identification indicates how strongly (or not) the newcomer has accepted the goals and values of the team and the intent to become a full member of the team [6]. This process of identification not only supports the ability of newcomers to perform in the new team but also positively affects how existing members respond to them [7]. Members performing together in teams require effective communication. This is not simply the words that are spoken but non-verbal communication and listening too.

Members must be aware of how they communicate including the words they choose, the channel selected to convey the message and the use of feedback. Too often, people simply assume that others understand what they are saying and they understand what others are saying. Both of these assumptions are risky while playing a game together. Research has revealed that some universal and specific team skills exert a positive influence on outcomes. Members mostly highlight teamwork, decision-making, information processing, reaching agreements and dealing with uncertainty as the most relevant contributions towards their outcomes. These results have instructional implications for determining the best way to enhance team players’ motivation and learning outcomes.

Functional conflict is essential for effectively playing the team games. While many believe that conflict should be avoided, functional conflict helps a team to mature and perform at optimal levels as against dysfunctional conflict. After resolving key issues, those teams that have a tentative peace or harmony are usually hesitant to take challenges. This can stall a team at an immature (and poor performing) stage. Teams that are more mature encourage their members to articulate their differences and conflict while playing the game. In any game, three faces of knowledge appear together in the form of action, the transaction of knowledge and in the performance of the players. Systemic interdependence arises by virtue of the constraints that these three aspects impose on each other in the context of every particular application [8].

During game play, specific local circumstances determine how the mutual influences between the faces of knowledge are affected. Players draw upon rules and resources and thereby, reproduce them in the course of the game. Especially in free play, the players have self-organizing transformative power. Games provide an opportunity to analyze the behavior of individual players within the social network of the team. Varied situations and broader contextual variables may moderate the effectiveness of a team. For instance, shared perceptions within the team about procedures followed may moderate the effectiveness of the team in terms of its members putting more efforts to be effective performers.

1.2 Rationale

The challenge for a team is to leverage the learning and skills required to play the game, create enjoying and engaging, relevant and personalized game experiences for all players which can be reflected in the outcome of the game. Team players could benefit from the sense of accomplishment during the gaming process and consequently, benefit from teamwork. The nature of games as interactive systems and playful activities help in explaining, analyzing and communicating amongst the team members. The perception of team players about the fellow members enriches the experience of playing team based games. Educational games usually offer nothing more than systems designed for repetitive exercises which do not take long to bore the players. Similarly, poorly designed educational games are unable to guide learners towards gradual learning to ensure the desired results. Developers must design the games keeping in view the perceived attributes of team players to enhance involvement, enjoyment and commitment of the members.

1.3 Objectives

The present study was undertaken with the following objectives:

  • to understand the perception of engineering students about constituent factors and attributes of team players.

  • to understand the difference in the perception of male and female engineering students about constituent factors and attributes of team players.

2 Method

2.1 The Study

It is an exploratory study focused at identifying the factors and attributes of team players. The convergence of attributes is intended to bring in more clarity about how team players are perceived by the youth.

2.2 The Design

The study is having multi stage randomized design starting from identification of the attributes of team players on the basis of review of literature. The attributes are presented in the form of statements to test the perception of engineering students. The data collected from students was analyzed for the next stage of the design by applying exploratory factor analysis to highlight the constituent factors of team players as perceived by the budding professionals.

2.3 The Sample

The sample was collected online through Google forms. A final sample of 650 engineering students studying in bachelor of technology course was drawn from the initial total sample of 720 respondents after purification of data, i.e., 70 incomplete, doubtful or erroneous forms were rejected. The extraneous variables were, thus, controlled by randomization and elimination. The respondents were in the age group of 18–23 years with an average age of 22 years. Further distribution of the sample was in terms of males and females.

2.4 The Tool for Data Collection

Based on review of literature, a tool for data collection was developed on five point Likert scale. The tool consisted of 28 items with five possible choices as strongly agree, agree, not sure, disagree and strongly disagree.

2.5 The Tool for Data Analysis

Simple correlation, factor analysis and Z-test were used for data analysis as per need of the multi-stage design of the study.

3 Results and Discussion

After running factor analysis on the data, two factors were identified: Ability to collaborate and ability to enjoy with an Eigen value of 13.05 and 1.96, respectively.

Ability to Collaborate.

This factor is constituted of item 4: collaborative relationship (.79); item 14: thinking and feeling about the role (.74); item 8: willing to provide the support (.74); item 2: contributes as an active member (.72); item15: true gamer hits harder (.71); item 26: mind and body perform together (.71); item 7: competent and committed (.71); item 5: influence on the dynamics of team (.71); item 16: optimistic (.70); item 13: right frame of mind (.70); item 3: participation in important decisions (.65); item 11: adds value (.65); item 1: specific expectations related to roles (.64); item 9: flexible (.63); item 17: self–reassessment (.62); item 10: diversity of opinions leading to optimal solutions (.59); item 18: altering everything when nothing seems to work (.58); item 25: games are just fun (.57); item 12: different roles while game progresses (.54); item 6: responsible for outcome(.53) and item 24: new form of the game a priority (.52) with a total factor load of 13.75 and 35.16% of variance.

Collaboration is defined in many contexts. In the organizational context, it means working together for mutual benefits like exchange of resources, knowledge sharing, technological know-how, capacity for innovation and diffusion of technology, strengthening of purchasing power and capacity to exert a higher pressure on the market [9]. Collaboration for teamwork can be argued as seeking to share better results and benefits by establishing a relationship. Thus, what seems difficult for individuals to achieve individually can be achieved with relationships and generating strength through collaboration. The collaborative advantage is more than an inter-team competitive advantage generated by joint value creation mechanisms by which members of a team obtain strategic benefits.

The belief is that players act in their best interests in relationships while performing based on what was agreed. They work together to achieve joint benefits, a feature that affects collaboration [10]. The trust influences the interaction among the members of a team. It contributes to collective actions and common goals that reduce opportunistic behaviours. At a relationship level, trust depicts a direct positive effect on the performance. The development of trust arises from the connectivity established between companies often derived from informal linkages [11]. Trust alleviates exchange ratios and is based on relationships that members of the team establish over time. Intense relationship contributes to reputation of the team which is extremely an important feature to build trust between members.

Ability to Enjoy.

This factor is constituted of item 28: games are just fun (.75); item 22: empathy has intended effects (.68); item 19: fastest route to victory (.68); item 27: players have fun (.67); item 20: risk is too great if it means avoiding defeat (.64); item 21: able to place soul within the body of the opponent (.60) and item 23: fresh game is engaging (.59) with a total factor load of 4.61 and 18.45% variance.

Emotional demonstrations are not always vibrant for they alter with time with some emotional instances more significant than others. Some emotional exhibits may influence players more while playing the game. The distinct emotion of happiness is the most needed form of positive emotions which are important for building relationships in interpersonal contexts [12]. Since a game is played for a prolonged period, the displayed emotions can vacillate. Exhibited delight at its peak moment plays a critical role in influencing the level of backing support received from the audience.

Gestalt theory maintains that peak is one of the few salient stimuli that are most memorable to and thus encoded by people, therefore showing a unique effect on people’s summary assessment beyond the average or general state of all stimuli [13]. Visual selective attention theory also suggests that people pay the most attention to the stimuli that are the most vivid and expressive, such as peak moments; greater attention in turn leads to better memory [14]. Since displayed joy at its peak moment is particularly noticeable and salient, it has a distinct influence on the response of audience who may feel more joyful when they sees highest displayed joy by the team players.

This can happen through emotional contagion, a situation wherein an observer, while observing emotional expressions of another person, mechanically imitates the expressions and starts to feel the same emotion [15]. Emotional contagion is strong when the emotions are at their peak and are highly expressive [16]. The joyful feeling of the audience can become meaningful moments in a player’s experience and evaluation of the game. Earlier studies have shown that positive emotions can reduce debate in decision-making and lead one to cultivate favorable decisions [17].

Escape smartphone gaming is linked to boredom proneness and gaming related problems [18]. People who experience intense boredom frequently in everyday life play smartphone games to escape or alleviate the feeling of boredom and end up with the problems of excessive game play like addiction to game play for longer periods with loss of awareness of time and space. The urge is more to escape boredom rather than to have fun or enjoyment. The game has to be played for fun rather than to escape the boredom. The joyful experience leads to positive emotions.

To find the difference in the perception of male and female students on the constituent factors of the team players, Z-test was applied. It was found insignificant on both the factors showing that there is no significant difference in the perception of male and female students on the factors, ability to collaborate and ability to enjoy. Both male and female students share similar perception on the factors and attributes of team players. This can be ascribed to the fact that these days, gender has lost its impact on the perception of male and female students about the attributes of team players due to digitization, exposure to social media and electronic media, equal opportunity to technical education, and games and sports.

It is well known that the ability to collaborate is essentially a part of teamwork but it is interesting to note that students perceive fun in terms of ability to enjoy as a constituent factor of the attributes of team players. Thus, the element of enjoying a game is seen to be essentially visible in team players and keeps teammates together while setting a goal to win. The common perception of students is reflected by having no impact of gender on the perception about the factors and attributes of team players. The study has, thus, revealed a two tier model in this regard (Fig. 1).

Fig. 1.
figure 1

Diagram: two tier model of attributes of team players

Full size image

4 Conclusion

Games have the potential to mix positive experiences. They enhance the opportunities for players to engage in meaningful discourse, actively construct and reformulate their knowledge, and to practice scientific reasoning and argumentation. These practices allow players to enhance their cognitive and metacognitive abilities. The results of the study have implications for game designers who should consider the scope for collaboration and fun while designing a new game. Game administrators can also encourage team players to collaborate and enjoy the game for superior and satisfying outcome.

It needs to be further studied why 21 items converged into a single factor i.e., ability to collaborate, whereas only seven items converged into the other factor, ability to enjoy. A comprehensive study needs to be designed to clarify whether the findings of this study indicate that cognitive elements have an edge over affective elements in a team-based game. The endorsement of the results may show that a team game is perceived by students as an opportunity to learn while having fun. Enjoyment acts a bond to continue playing the game. The implications for researchers are to explore the perception in different age groups, study the perception of non-technical students in the same age group and compare the impact of culture on the perception of students.