You are a project manager responsible for the overall management of a large project to introduce your company’s technology into the development of a new hospital. Most of the members of your team are from the UK, France and Germany. However, several of the newer engineers are from other EU member states. You notice at project meetings that these engineers tend to be far more reticent than the other team members in volunteering ideas for solving problems.

This issue has coincided with the arrival on the scene of a management student from the local university who is keen to study a real-life management problem for her final-year undergraduate dissertation. You have asked her to study the assimilation experience of these engineers into your company with a view to recommending any changes that may be necessary to change the programme designed to effect the assimilation process.

You ask her to start the research by sitting in on the project team meetings and, in particular, observing the behaviour of these newer engineers. What suggestions would you make to your student to help her structure her observation of the meetings?