In his research talk on social sustainability and team engagement at TUM Campus Straubing, Prof. Tan said that he collaborated with Girl Scouts of USA to examine team factors affecting engagement retention in their Cookie Program.
Prof. Tom Tan in his lecture about correlations between team & diversity efforts and sales figures. Photo: Wiebke Pfefferle/TUM
“Our goal was to build a supportive team to ensure girls developed the intended skills over time”, Prof. Taid explained. He and his team analyzed data from 2016 to 2018 of cookie sales performance and troop membership from a local council of approximately 30,000 members. Prof. Tan predicted and tested effects of five team-based factors on a scout’s decision to continue in the program.
“We discovered that small troop size, evenly distributed sales, high adult-to-girl ratio, and age diversity in troops positively impact scout retention. Troops that conducted booth sales also retained more scouts”, Prof. Tan said. Their findings suggest organizations should consider team composition and relationship-building interventions to boost engagement. Understanding these team factors can aid organizations in fully utilizing their team members’ learning and development potential.
Tom Fangyun Tan is an associate professor at the Information Technology and Operations Management Department at the SMU Cox School of Business. His research interests include empirical operations management in service sectors, specifically focusing on the impact of technology on service operations, and labor productivity in service operations. He serves on the Editorial Board of the Production and Operations Management journal and the Decision Sciences journal. He received the Boghetich Family Distinguished teaching award, the most significant teaching award at SMU Cox.
Tom graduated from the Wharton School of University of Pennsylvania with a PhD in operations and information management and an MA in statistics. He obtained his Bachelor of Science degree from Columbia University as an operations research major with two minors in applied math and economics. Further details can be found here: https://www.smu.edu/cox/our-people-and-community/faculty/Tom-Tan