Gallagher, K. (2013). Skills developmentfor business management students. Study and
employability. 2"d. Ed. Oxford: Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-964426-1
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Teamwork Skilis
Chapter guide
~to~~~n~ ví~zra~csífaá
In many situations the rewards of working in a successful team are won only after a
challenging learning process. An essential part ofthis process is to experienceworkingwithothers—hencetheinclusion ofteam exercises in many degree programmes.
Here are some comments from a group of multinational students, reflecting back
upon the'hard lessons'they learnt from working in teams at university.
On acting as individuals before starting to work as ateam:
'Everyone tl,ovghtthey were right.'
Omar
On the shyness ofsometeam members when contributing to group discussions:
'1 was surprised at the other 9rovp members' inl+ibition and áifferent
attitudes.'
Dirk
On individuals analysingtheir own team orientation:
'T{,e pro{ling exercise in terms of team roles Was good —but Shauld Have
been done earl ier.'
Katerina
On buildingtrust:
'Perhaps itWovld be a good idee to socialize more.'
Dirk
By the end of this chapter you should be able to:
e Analyse your own team's stage of development
~ Direct your team's approach to project work
c~ Write aTeam Agreement detailing howyou will worktogether
c Write a summary(`minutes) of each team meeting
Identify social skills thatyou can develop through working in yourteam
o Examineyourownrole(s)withinyourteam
~~ Select and apply an appropriate strategy for conflict resolution within
your team
c Outline a range of helpful team behaviours(COACH)
Adopt a more considered approach to cultural issues within your team
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Introduction
When you write your CV, whether it is for a vacation job or that career post you have been
dreaming of, it is quite likely that you will describe yourself as `a good team player' or as
having good teamworking skills'. In other words, you do not need this book to tell you that
employers are definitely looking for staff who can work well in teams. If you did need proof
of this, you would only need to conduct a quick search on a government website or one of
the leading employment bodies, to see teamworl<ing prominently listed. The management
researchers Stevens and Campion (7999) provide us with a good idea of what employers
mean when they talk about'good teamwork':they mean knowledge,skills and abilities(KSA)
in five areas—conflict resolution, collaborative problem-solving, listening to one another,
goal-setting and planning and task coordination.
It fol lows, therefore,that teamworking skills development should also feature strongly in
your business or management programme as one ofthe key employability requirements to
prepare you for the world of work. This further suggests that such skills may be developed
duringyourtime at university(Chen, Donahue and Klimoski, 2004),and thatthey are capable ofbeing transferred to your future career and work situation. However, worthy as these
career and work motives are,the development of team skills at university also helps you to
fully engage and develop in social, personal and academic ways while you are at university.
Chapter outline
This chapter takes a structured approach. It answers the question `What is a team?'and'Why
work in teams at university?'The initial discussion introduces the concept of teams and then
considers how teams develop. The purpose of this is to show you how effective teams work,
so that you may seek to incorporate this knowledge in your future team experience within
the university and later in your career. Some of the theory regarding teams is given in this
section —you will perhaps cover more ofthis in other modules, such as people management
or organizational behaviour. In Section 11.3, you will consider howworking as a team at university improves your specific subject knowledge and skills. Further sections then show how
you develop your social and personal skills by working in teams.
Having answered the question 'Why work in teams at university?', the chapter then addressestwo particular aspects ofteamworkthatwill be relevantto you both at university and
later in your career: conflict resolution in teams and cultural issues. You will be presented with
various strategies for handling differences between team members; these wí11 help you to
work more productively at university as wellas being transferable to the work environment.
11.1 What is a team? Why work in teams at university?
What is a team?
Forthe purposes ofthis chapter ateam is defined as:
A group of people who work together to achieve a particular task(s).
191
192
~~~nf~~wor~~< s~<~~~.s
To elaborate upon this, consider a class of 25 students. This may be a convenient group size for
workshops or sem inars,as the seminartutor is capable ofdirectingthis number ofstudents and
still havingsome interaction with individuals. However,itwould probably be ineffective to give
such a group a common task each week in class where they had to work cooperatively together.
It is much more usual for the tutor to break the class into smaller groups of say,four to six students,and ask these groups to work on the task. This is almost an instinctive reaction. However,
if you were to analyse the advantages of doing this you might arrive at the following list:
c The group size allows each student to have some role to play.
Decisions maybe reached within a reasonable timespan.
~. Over time the group will getto know each other—and may then work better.
~_ There are sufficient people to share knowledge, advice and opinions.
In textbooks on organizational theory you will read of the academic debate between groups
and teams(see the Further reading at the end of this chapter)and thát some writers use the
terms rather loosely. To summarize, however, a team is considered either to be a group that
performs (well), or it represents someone's wishes for how that group should perForm. So, a
group of 71 football players that does not perform well as a collective body may not be considered to be working as a team.
Why work in teams at university?
As mentioned in the introduction,there are various reasons and benefits ofworking in teams
while you are at university. Figure 71.1 gives an overview of five key areas, which will be
11.2. Team skills
development
i.e.: process of how to work
—~
together effectively
11.6. Coping skills
development—
e.g•
- give help to others
- accept help from
others
I
Whyworlcin
teams at university?
~
~
i'
o
D
- -- ---=-=-I
11.5. Selfconcept
development—
e.g.
as a leader
- as a team player
11.3. Group
assignments: skills and j
I<nowledge
~
development
-- -----G
I
~
~
~
Fig 11.7 Working in teams at university: skills
Transfer
to
career and
workplace
11.4. Social skills .
development
and life as a
university
student
~___-___— ---
u Ckflq ~fCie ES ~~v~E~PNJEN ó
further detailed in Sections 71.2 to 7 7.6. The five key areas required for team skills atwork are
given by Stevens and Campion (7 994, 7 999)as:
collaborative problem-solving;
~. communication—listening effectively;
conflict resolution;
c goal-setting and performance management;
planning and task coordination.
One of the aims of teamwork at university is the transfer of generic team skills to the work
situation,shown in Figure 11.1.
11.2 Teary skills dev~lopmen~
11.2,i"eam skills
development,
i.e.: process of how to work
together effectively
Why work in
teams at
university?
The process through which teams form and develop has been rigorously tested in practice. By
learning how this process happens, you will be more able to work with the dynamics of any
group or team that you find yourself in. It allows you to discuss the health of your team with
other team members using a common language'. Also, ittells you that teams often go through a
particular sort of learningcurve before they become effective. The modelofteam development
that we are goingto use, introduced by Bruce Tuckman (1965)and developed in his later work
with AnnJensen (1977), is nowwell established in education and training. The model shows that
teams go through a series of stages in their development—forming, storming, Worming, performingand adjourning. It is only by goingthrough the stages offorming,stormingand Worming
that the group can actually begin its work in the performing stage. Further detail is shown below.
Forming
This is the stage at which the group is brought together. It is a time of`orientation', when the
group discuss their purpose as a group and their general direction. Alternatively, the group
may be set up by a consultant(or at university, by your tutor) and be given a brief that says
how you are to work together on a particular task. Some members may feel that the group
193
194
~c~nAwe~tz ~ea~.Ls
offers themasafe environment, while others will wish to use the group to push forward their
own ideas. Little work is done atthis stage.
Storming
.This stage is characterized bythe airing ofthe various opinions of group members. It is atime
when the emotions of group members appear—ranging from mild anxiety to inter-personal
conflict—as members seek to establish their own position and, related to this, how the task
should be tackled.
Norming
During this stage, resistance to working together as a group is overcome and the group
decides how it is going to go about itsjob. It is a time of agreeing a range of`group norms':
ways of working and behaviour that are generally acceptable to the group.
Typical group norms for a group of students who have been given a project to work on
might include:
acceptable levels ofwork input;
degree of trust and openness expected;
~~ ways of allocatingtasl<s;
c how decisions will be approved;
deadline expectations;
c attendance at group meetings.
PerForming
As the term suggests, now that the group has sorted out how it is going to work, it can begin
to be a functional unit. If the group has got `stuck' at any of the previous stages, it may not
begin its work. Alternatively, if it has managed to somehow struggle through the stages but in
an unsatisfactory manner, it may not perform particularly well.
Adjourning
The group disbands atthis stage. This may simply be because the task is complete and the reasonfor the group's being together no longer exists. Perhaps the task ís no longer considered
important, or another has replaced it as the focus of attention. Another reason may be that
group members move onto other areas of interest.
Activity i~.i Storming
Think of atime when a group you were in became'stuck at the storming stage. What happened? What
did you learn from this?
sc~~e.B~ ~~~o~~c~~~;Ns: Dr_veao~s~c s~~pccr tcr~ocv~~~~e ~r~D s~ccr.~s
11.3 C~o~a~ ~ssi~~~ents:d~~elo~6n~ ~~bject
knowledge and skill
11.3. Group
assignments: skills and
Icnowiedge
development
Why work in
teams at
university?
It is perfectly true that you can learn on your own. You can research and be creative, have
experiences and reflect upon them. However, at some pointyou will feel the urge to talkto
someone ábout those experiences, your ideas and the questions that remain unanswered
in your mind. In a similar fashion, you can tackle certain tasks yourself—but larger, more
complex ones will be beyond your capability as an individual. So, sooner or later, you will
reach the limitations of what you can achieve in terms of your ability to learn and do on
your own:this is where workingwith others—teams in particular—has its benefíts.~lt is quite
likely. that you will spend a significant part ofyour working life in teams—this is one of the
main reasons why you are asked to work in teams at university. For some of your work you
will be involved with large, complex projects that require a coordinated effort for their
completion. Project work at university gives you the opportunity to engage with this process. For now we will focus on some of the benefits associated with teamwork that emerge
from the bullet list below:
e large, complex projects possible;
o greater range of information available;
o more ideas generated;
o collaboration can lead to even better ideas;
o motivational aspects ofteamwork.
Tackling large,complex projects
You can achieve so much with your team—but the way ín which you tackle a project is one
of the determining factors for your success. A systematic approach will help you to control
your project; if you also allow the team to have time to be creative, you will have a winning
formula! To illustrate a project approach that satisfies both requirements, you are asked to
considerthegroup yresentation Skills Example 71.1,which outlines an assignment bríefgiven
to year 1 management students.
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196
FLF~PJJWO~2K 56i9LE5
~; Skills Exar~~ple n.i The great speechmaker
The following extract is part of a first year group assignment brief(other details not shown).
Group presentation: A great speechmaker
GROUP GUIDELINES
~= This is a group assignment.
You will be assigned to a group by your seminar tutor with a view to getting a mix of different
personal backgrounds to assistyourinter-personal learning.
~: Groups will normally consist of4 to 5 students.
TASK: research and presentation
Your group is to choose someone(living or dead)whom you regard as a great speechmaker.Your
group should research this person in terms of one or more of his/her speeches and the skills and
qualities that this person demonstrated in making this speech. Your group is to present its findings by
means of a 15-minute presentation.
Now consider the flow chart in Figure 11.2,'Teamworking in action'. This shows a systematic
way oftackling a project. As it stands, it is a general process that you can follow. We will apply
the steps of the flow chart to the skills example above(Great Speechmaker).
Step 1:Team gets together
You will note that the group has agreed how they are going to work together, as shown in
their `team agreement'in Figure 11.3. In the case shown,the format for this agreement was
drawn up by their tutor as part of the formal process for groups working within their class.
You would probably do this in any case, in a more informal way, if your group was working
effectively. However, it is something that you may wish to consider, as people sometimes
make incorrect assumptions about what is expected of them and others. Note that in the
example the group is multicultural; it is not always obvious that everyone knows what is
expected of them, so an explicit team agreement such as this may be useful. Research by
Akkerman, Petter and de Laat (2008, pp. 385-6) supports this approach—see the Further
reading.
Step 2: Brainstorm/idea generation
This is a very creative step. You are looking for afree-wheeling approach to getting as many
ideas as you can, no matter how improbable—you feel that you can really Iet your imagination go at this point. You then sort through the ideas and select some to take forward to the
next step. For further discussion of creativity, mind maps, etc. see Chapter 7 2 on Creativity
and Innovation. Male sure that you retain copies of any documentation you use—it does
C~fZ~QAP F~~~6G[~t~~cN sS: E~GVCLCb[~GtVG S~IL,~[cf s.[e F.9~iQPJ~CDGC A{~iCJ SC(@ACS
Step 1.TEAM gels together and agrees ground rules'
• Form
• Storm
I
'Norm
- - ----
~'~ .Step 2. Brainstorm - ~ _,~
task-idea generation `-'
~.-i
-~"_=
~~~
~
More
ideas
needed?
More
research
needed?
Control
information
Team
agreement?
•Mind maps
•Lists
•dotes
`
ï'
Step 3. Initial ideas
',
people
research-various
- - -----~~
r
•Initial research findings
• Minutes of meeting
•Approval of direction
Step 4. Feedback to
team. Discuss
Step 5. Draw up a project (
Project plan-actions, dates
.~
Step 6. Allocate tasks
ii
Responsibility chart
Corrective
action?
7.
Step 8. Monitoring against progress
_-series of meetings - .
Minutes of various
meetings and progress
_~
Step 9.Team event/submission
ICey: Informal
communication
between
members
Step 10. Review performance i
-celebrate success!
`_ _.
~____ __ __T____
Fig 11.2 Teamworking in action showing steps 1-10
•Team's own performance
review +feedback/others
•Personal learning log
197
198
~~c►n~~~r~?~~~Et ~~t~~r_s
TEAM AGREEMENT FOR TEAM'X'—[Date:]
Team members(full names)
Contact details—e.g. mobile, email
Anna ARISTOPOULOS
e.g.: 0789 123456
e.g.:ann.aristo@cloud.com
Dong ZHOU
(number]
(email]
Lorna SMITH
(number]
email]
number]
email]
David BROWN
WEIJin (Mary)
(number]
email]
INFORMAL COMMUNICATION
We have decided:
1. to use English whenever we are in group discussions and(or emailing each other,
2, to 6e available on Thursday evenings(or a weekly MSN chat;
3. to use our university VLE group discussion board.
MEETINGS
We have decided:
1. to hold a weekly meeting after our Marketing lecture an Tuesday morning, meeting up in the Library
discussion area;
2. that everyone must 6e present at the meeting—if they can not be there they should inform us in advance
if possible;
3. that we will take notes(minutes) ofeach meeting.
MAKING DECISIONS
We have agreed:
o If a decision goes to a vote,the majority view will be taken.
c We will give everyone a go at chairing our meetings.
~' We will choose a group spokesperson.
c We will choose someone to edit our individual contributions.
SANCTIONS
We hope to all work in harmony together. We all have different strengths. We accept that this is a group
piece of work and we are all responsible for doing our best. However, we agree now that:
~
if individuals have problems in working in the group or on the task, we will try to
sort them out promptly by talking to each other;
we will seek advice—as soon as possible—from our tutor for those serious
problems we cannot resolve ourselves.
SIGNED:Anna Aristopoulos, Dong Zhou, D Brown, Lorna Smith, Mary Wei
Fig 11.3 Team agreement
not matter if it looks'messy'. In the minutes from the teamworking example,three possible
speechmakers are listed: Winston Churchill, Nelson Mandela and the Greek philosopher,
Aristotle (Figure 7 7.4).
Step 3: Initial ideas research
You now need to carry out some initial research on your ideas. It should enable you to go to
the next stage. In the example, this research would be to gather more facts about the three
speechmakers.
~r~o~~ ass~e~~n~~~W ~s: ~cve~o~~~~G se~~a~cea ~engovtr~c~~c ~ c.9~ s~t~[~,~.s
EXAMPLE OF MEETING MINUTES
Team Meeting Minutes Meeting No. 2
Subject'Great Speechmaker'Presentation
Date 37st March 2009
Present: Anna A, Dong Z, David B, Lorna S,Jin W(Mary)
Action points from last meeting:
1. Anna to report back on initial research on Greek philosopherAristotle as choice ofspeechmaker.
2. David to report back on Winston Churchill.
3. Mary to report back on Nelson Mandela.
Agenda for this meeting:
~ to choose a particular speechmaker;
to draw up a project plan;
~. to allocate tasks between group members.
Summary of discussion
After considerable discussion we decided that we would choose Nelson Mandela as our speechmaker: we
thought Anna's research (Aristotle) was interesting but too ancient; Winston Churchill was very familiar to
David and Lorna but not the rest of us and we weren't sure if we wanted to talk about wars! Nelson Mandela
had the benefits ofbeing awell-known and inspirational person who was still alive (.~) and we could get lou of
material on him and his life. We drafted out a rough plan—Lorna is going to circulate atidied-up version to
everyone—in which we decided to break our task up into 5 areas for Nelson Mandela as speechmaker: key
biography; transcripts of3 of his mostfamous speeches; background information on the history of apartheid
in South Africa; photos, sound track, YouTube; etc. to add to our presentation; editing the various sections into
our slides.
Action list
ACTION
PERSON
BY
1. lid up plan, include dates and circulate e-version to team.
2. Get key dates and factr on apartheid system.
Lorna
Dong
2/4/09
5/4/09
3. Find transcripts ofsome of his speeches—circulate to team.
Mary
2/4/09
4. Carry out initial search for photos and YouTube.
David
3/4/09
5. Research on personal skills and qualities for speechmaking.
Anna
6/4/09
Date of next meeting: 7th April 2009, 2.00 pm, Library
Written by: Mary (Jin)
Fig 11.4 Example of meeting minutes
Step 4: Feedback
Here you decide as a team whether your ideas are worth pursuing. In rocket launch terms, it
is the GO/NO GO decision point. You may have to go back and rethinl<your ideas and then
go through some further research. In the example, the team chose Nelson Mandela as their
speechmaker.They recorded this process in the meeting minutes, Figure 7 7.4.
Step S: Draw up plan and Step 6:Allocate tasks
The team needs to decide on a plan of action. At the very least, this should list what is to be
done and who is tasked to do it. You may wish to use an activity (Gantt) chart that shows
the schedule of activities (refer to Chapter 3, Figure 3.4). Tasks need to be allocated at this
stage—this is shown as'responsibility chart' in Figure 11.2. Figure 7 7.5 shows how you might
combine your project plan with a responsibility chart.
L
199
,Mary(Jin}
Lorna
RESPONSIBILIN
Anna
Anna
6. Selected points of apartheid system to presentation
content
7.General qualities forwhat males greát speeches
8. Selected points of qualities to presentation content
TEAM
Fig 17.5 Project plan combined with responsibility chart: example—`Great Speechmaker' presentation
TEAM
92E~-0~ARSlAd.
Dong
TEAM
SWEAKER5—Decide order in presentaéion
PldESENTA~IOM EV~M~
David
Photos/YouTube
David
PR~SENTAY►OM PIFOPS, FdANDOUTS/~EE~~ACBC
Anna/TEAM
Final draft
SdIDE G9FAPFdICS—oro to AowerPoin~~
Initial draft
Anna/TEAM
Dong
5. Bacl<round to apartheid system in South Africa
P62ESE6VTATI0f~9 Co~nten~
Mary(Jin)
Dong
4. Selected quotes of speeches to presentation content
Mary(Jin)
Weelc
~
Lorna/David
Weelc
6
2.Selected bio details to presentation content
Weelc
5
3. Transcripts of 3 Mandela speeches°;-
Weel<
4
Lorna/David
Weelc
3
1. Biographic details of Nelson Mandela
Week
2
\
Week
1
fBESEARC@~
Meeting secretary—writingweelclyminutes
Tidy up plan and circulate to group
ACTIVIN
DATE
N
O
O
DGVCL~t~[PdG SOC@AE. S[C{L~S fP5 TCRtl~S
Step 7: Work on tasks
The team in our example has yet to work on its various allocated tasks. Team members may
go about this largely undertheir own direction, but it is usuallygood practice to keep in touch
with other team members from time to time. In the example,they will do this informally between meetings by using MSN on Thursday evenings.
Step 8: Monitoring
Ongoing work will be monitored against the plan. If any corrective action needs to betaken,
this should be picked up at regular meetings. Again, meetings will be minuted.
Step 9:Teamwork event/submission
Finally, the day of the team event—or in our case, the presentation—will arrive and the team
will bejudged on its performance.
Step 10: Review performance
It is important to Keep going at this point—the full cycle is not complete until the team has
reviewed its performance. For the'Great Speechmaker' presentation, the team will receive
feedback from the tutor and other students,as well as being able to conduct their own review.
The review should be constructively critical with pointers for improvement. Finally, if you
knowyou've worked hard on the project,why not acknowledge it in some way,even if it's only
to yourself? Make a record in your personal learning log—it may come in handy for your CV.
Finally...
Please note that you do not have to follow this approach exactly—the important thing is that
you think about the benefits of adopting a similarapproach and try it foryourself, notingwhat
works best for you.
11.4 Developing social skills in teams
11.4.1 Tackling problem areas
Why work in
teams at
university?
71.4. Social skills
development
and life az a
university
student
2~~