The impact of a first-year orientation team building event: A longitudinal review

Experience, anecdotal evidence, and academic performance indicate that first-year construction management students experience challenges in terms of adapting to their course environment in a South African university. The purpose of the study is to determine the impact of a one-day orientation team building event directed at enhancing first-year students' ability to manage themselves, work as a team, interface with each other, strategise, plan, evolve tactics, and take action that would lead to their team winning the 'amazing race' style event. A quantitative approach, which entailed the completion of a thirteen-question self-administered questionnaire after the event, determined the students' perceptions. The questionnaire consisted of twelve closed-ended Likert scale type questions, and an open-ended question. Findings include: the team building activities contributed to enhancing participants' ability to communicate with first-year colleagues; built confidence in their abilities including that of completing a task, and enhanced participants' alternative thought processes, ability to be creative, strategise, evolve tactics, take action, and plan. The students benefited from, enjoyed the team building activities and believed it contributed to improving their time management skills. Based upon the findings, conclusions include: non-traditional academic programme interventions, such as the team-building event, do impact on first-year students' ability, to manage themselves, strategise, plan, evolve tactics, and take action, which in turn should contribute to their ability to study, undertake assignments, projects, and successfully complete the undergraduate programme, and the activities built confidence in their abilities, enhanced communication amongst them, and provided an opportunity for them to test alternative thought processes. Recommendations include: the team building event should be undertaken on an annual basis, with the impact thereof on participants to be determined following the completion of a full academic year and again post-graduation, and further potential events directed at enhancing students' abilities and increasing confidence in their abilities should be investigated.