Planning the Trip: Navigating Teams and Leader–Member Relationships Through Experiential Role-Play

Abstract

Planning the Trip is an in-class, experiential activity where students act out commonly found roles on teams while trying to plan a vacation together. The goal of the exercise is for the students, via role-play, to explore leader–member relationships within teams using leader–member exchange (LMX) theory. By experiencing team roles and LMX principles firsthand, students enhance their understanding of effective teaming. LMX is frequently discussed as a leader-subordinate dyad. When working in a team context, the leader is often required to work with several team members at the same time. This activity uses the team setting to show how LMX relationships form throughout a complex problem-solving scenario, highlighting that LMX quality is shaped by process loss and process gains. This exercise can be used in undergraduate, graduate, professional education, or training courses, including courses on organizational behavior, leadership, and individual differences.

Keywords

organizational behavior teams leader–member exchange in-groups and out-groups experiential exercise teamwork trust

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