Using peer covenants in team projects: How obligations improve accountability

Document Type

Book Chapter

Publication Date

2024

Abstract

According to AAC&U (Finley, 2021), teamwork is the number one skill that employers want from college graduates. One way to help improve teamwork and help teams to overcome the pitfalls they often face (Franz & Silver, 2022) is through a team or peer covenant.

A team or peer covenant is a collaborative process that results in a document stating behavioral and attitudinal principles of the working relationship for the team (see Silver & Franz, 2021). Asa process, a team creates its own covenant. As a signed document that each team creates, it details the team members’ obligations to the team. It is different from norms or team contracts because it focuses on each member’s obligations to the team, rather than the team’s expectations of the members. In addition, itis signed by all team members. This creates an additional level of accountability to each member. More importantly the team reviews the covenant at least once a month. The covenant creates clear and explicit expectations, and reviewing it improves accountability (Silver & Franz, 2022)

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