Exploring the link between students' MBTI personality types and design team performance

Abstract

This study investigates the relationship between MBTI personality type diversity and team performance in the first-year Introduction to Design course at SUTD. Analysis reveals a statistically significant yet weak correlation between greater MBTI diversity and higher final project grades. Additionally, teams with more introverted (I) and intuitive (N) members tended to perform better, consistent with research linking introverts to deep reflection and structured decision-making, and intuitives to creative problem-solving and future-oriented thinking. Result also shows that teams with INTJ and ISTP members performed better, while those with ISFP members showed lower performance. While these findings suggest personality composition influences team performances, measured in terms of grades, further research is needed to establish causation and underlying mechanisms.