Attitude toward teamwork and effective teaming

Headnote

Keywords

Attitudes, Team working

Abstract

The business sector has created a need for higher educational institutions to prepare students to be effective team players. Responding to this need, higher educational institutions have been using different forms of active learning as methods to promote teamwork among students and enhance their learning. Results from such initiatives have shown that students recognize that the teaming experience improves their interpersonal skills, yet they still prefer work individually. Attitude originated from negative team experiences. The purpose of this study was to determine what relationship exists between individual attitudes toward teaming and the presence of characteristics deemed essential for an effective team. The study suggests that when mature communication, accountable interdependence, psychological safety, common purpose, role clarity and clear goal are present during the process of teaming, the experience will have a positive effect on individuals' attitude toward teamwork.

Electronic access

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Experiences from organizations using the team approach for improving performance have pointed to teamwork as an important tool in business success. This finding has prompted organizations to start looking for teamwork skills in their new employees. Although employers may be willing to provide on-the-job training, they expect that their new employees at least possess the basic understanding of why teamwork skills are important to their organization.

Looking for ways of shortening the new employees learning experience on acquiring teamwork skills in the workplace, organizations are suggesting institutions of higher education to prepare future employees (students) to be effective team players (Busse, 1992; Alexander and Stone, 1997; McFarland, 1992; Kunkel and Shafer, 1997). For this reason, accreditation organizations at the collegiate level such as the Accounting Education Change Commission (AECC), the joint Commission for Accreditation of health Care Organizations QCAHO) and the Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology (ABET), among others, are requiring higher education institutions to introduce teamwork activities into their curriculums (Ravenscroft and Buclkess, 1995; ABET, 2002; Richardson et al, 1999).

In response to this demand, institutions of higher education are developing methodologies for introducing teamwork in their classrooms. They also want to enhance the process of learning through the use of teams...