Corporate Mole: A Grouping Strategy for Minimizing the Free-Rider Problem in a Managerial Finance Course

Abstract

Group projects in upper level finance courses are becoming
common, both for the reflection of real-world group tasks in
business firms and for their appropriateness in dealing with
certain types of assignments in the classroom and beyond. Professors often lament over effective formation of groups and the
task of managing group dynamics, including the problem of
free-riders: those students who, knowing that the group gets the
grade, will shirk their respective responsibilities in accomplishing group tasks. The following article represents one evolution
of grouping methods over two decades and the observations
surrounding each. The most successful, in this author’s experience, is a recent marriage of a so-called “reality TV” recipe
with structured groupings