Teamworking : a practical approach
Cespedes, Ana; Nguyen, Ngoc (2020)
Cespedes, Ana
Nguyen, Ngoc
2020
Julkaisun pysyvä osoite on
https://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi:amk-2020051812125
https://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi:amk-2020051812125
Tiivistelmä
Teamworking has been one of the essential soft skills in the future workplace. Virtually all higher education universities or even high schools try to implement teamwork as part of coursework, with the aim of preparing students with the needed skills to be able to work collaboratively within a team. Lack of collaboration is one of the biggest challenges of teamworking, especially when there is a difference of skillset or levels of knowledge among members (Harris & Sherblom 2011).
The objective is to prove that in order to boost collaboration among members of different backgrounds, certain teambuilding practices in the beginning phase of team development process are highly in need, and some teambuilding practices suggestions are also made. Qualitative research method is used, and to be specific, unstructured interviews were carried out to get the pool of data. The pool of respondents includes 7 experts and 11 students. The participants come from different backgrounds and experiences, which ensure the characteristics of interdisciplinary teams.
It is found out that collaboration factor is affected by other sub-factors, such as motivational level of members, goal setting process, cultural diversity, conflict management strategy, cohesiveness. It is important to acknowledge the model of team phase development, and to be able to select the appropriate teambuilding strategy fostering the mentioned subfactors constructively at the right phase of developing teams. Certain teambuilding practices help building collaboration better among members, which can act as extrinsic motivation factors for members. Activities outside project work or certain rewards system can help with building and maintaining motivation. When the team is newly formed, members should agree on mutual clear goals, objectives and expectations by possibly implementing learning contract method. Also, there is a need of a leader for many reasons, which are stated throughout the entire thesis.
We conclude that teambuilding activities play a vital role in giving significant support towards boosting collaboration among interdisciplinary team members, especially during the first forming phase of team development process. By implementing the right teambuilding practices at the right time within team development process, there can possibly be an indirect impact on the collaboration levels among members, either constructively or destructively, especially in teams with diversity in backgrounds.
The objective is to prove that in order to boost collaboration among members of different backgrounds, certain teambuilding practices in the beginning phase of team development process are highly in need, and some teambuilding practices suggestions are also made. Qualitative research method is used, and to be specific, unstructured interviews were carried out to get the pool of data. The pool of respondents includes 7 experts and 11 students. The participants come from different backgrounds and experiences, which ensure the characteristics of interdisciplinary teams.
It is found out that collaboration factor is affected by other sub-factors, such as motivational level of members, goal setting process, cultural diversity, conflict management strategy, cohesiveness. It is important to acknowledge the model of team phase development, and to be able to select the appropriate teambuilding strategy fostering the mentioned subfactors constructively at the right phase of developing teams. Certain teambuilding practices help building collaboration better among members, which can act as extrinsic motivation factors for members. Activities outside project work or certain rewards system can help with building and maintaining motivation. When the team is newly formed, members should agree on mutual clear goals, objectives and expectations by possibly implementing learning contract method. Also, there is a need of a leader for many reasons, which are stated throughout the entire thesis.
We conclude that teambuilding activities play a vital role in giving significant support towards boosting collaboration among interdisciplinary team members, especially during the first forming phase of team development process. By implementing the right teambuilding practices at the right time within team development process, there can possibly be an indirect impact on the collaboration levels among members, either constructively or destructively, especially in teams with diversity in backgrounds.