The frequency of IBD students working in teams

11 Figure 1: The frequency of IBD students working in teams...11 Figure 2: IBD students roles in working teams...12 Figure 3: Students opinions about working in teams...13 Figure 4: Reas

NATIONAL ECONOMICS UNIVERSITY

INTERNATIONAL SCHOOL MANAGEMENT AND ECONOMICS

IBD@NEU

TEAM-WORKING SKILLS OF IBD STUDENTS

Chu Nguyet Quynh Nhu

Supervisor: Mrs.Bui Thi Thanh Binh

ProjectsI16S4December 23 , 2020rd

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

I have made a great effort to complete this project, however, but without the kindencouragement and assistance of many people, I have not been able to achieve thissuccessful outcome Thus, I would like to give a heartfelt gratitude to all supporters fortheir substantial help in conducting this survey

First of all, I would like to express my special thanks to our project teacher – Ms Bui ThiThanh Binh – who has been always able to support and provide me with useful guidanceduring this project

Secondly, I would like to thank many students of International Bachelor Degree atNational Economics University who have taken part in my survey questionnaire andhelped me to collect the data for this project

Finally, thanks to all the valuable contributions of my peers, who have always given me alot of valuable comments and encouragement to finish my project Therefore, I offer myregards and blessings to all of them

Hanoi, December 2020

Table of Content

INTRODUCTION 5

I Background and Context 5

II Rationales/ purposes 5

III Research Questions: 6

IV Research methods 6

LITERATURE REVIEW 8

INTRODUCTION 8

BODY 8

1 The advantages of working in teams 8

2 The importance of team-working skills 9

3 How students improve their teamwork skills 10

CONCLUSION 10

MAJOR FINDINGS 11

Figure 1: The frequency of IBD students working in teams 11

Figure 2: IBD students roles in working teams 12

Figure 3: Students opinions about working in teams 13

Figure 4: Reasons why students unsatisfied when working in teams 14

Figure 5: Skills that team members need in the process of team working 15

Figure 6: Factors that create a good teamwork 16

Figure 7: Reasons why students prefer to work in groups 17

Figure 8: Reasons why students dislike to work in group 18

Figure 9: The most important role of a team leader 19

Figure 10: Reasons why team working skills are important 20

Figure 11: Teamwork skills that are necessary in schools 22

Figure 12: Methods to improve team working skills 23

CONCLUSION 24

REFERENCE LIST 25

APPENDIX 27

I Background and Context

Nowadays, team-working skills are becoming more and more important in schools aswell as the workplace Most people believe that "teamwork makes a dream work"because in reality, successful teamwork can lead to amazing outcomes, much better thanthe overall results of any person who works independently In addition, the ability towork in teams is one of the most essential soft skills that is commonly taught inuniversities to be practiced in the workplace as well as required in everyday life

However, according to Thanh (2016), employers are not confident about the soft skills ofgraduates, particularly team-working skills In addition, Yamashita (2012, as cited inTuoitrenews, 2012) also said that many international companies have expresseddissatisfaction at the communication skills and teamwork spirit of recent Vietnamesecollege graduates Skills such as teamwork, problem-solving, time management,communication and interpersonal skills are targeted by most employers as a key need forrecruiting, especially in a team setting It is also very critical for undergraduates to havethe technical skills of working in teams so that they can produce better academic results.The purposes that I aimed in this research were to show out IDB students’ opinions abouttheir team-working skills and how they are doing to improve it From that, we havecollected needed information to understand why there is still lack of graduates with fullyequipped soft skills and what we need to solve this problem

II Rationales/ purposes

My research is willing to investigate the practical issues that people have whenever they

do team-working and how they deal with it in order to lead the teams and achieve the

success Generally, the study focused on IBD students to collect data and then analyzehow they are doing to improve their ability of working in teams Besides, this essay couldshow some effective ways to help them build team-working skills as well as beingexcellent group members.

III Research Questions:

- What do IBD students think about their team-working skills?

- Which problems do IBD students have when working in groups?

- Why do IBD students think that they need these skills?

- What can IBD students do to improve their teamwork skills?

IV Research methods

- Research type

In this study article, I performed a quantitative analysis which is conducted by a survey

In order to have correct information and data, I asked 65 students from IBD@NEU 12different questions via Google Forms Then I analyzed the data that I had received andsummarized it Based on the collected data, I found out more information and finalized

my research This research proposal include both primary and secondary sources

Most of my surveyed subjects will be on IBD students aged from 18-22 years old

- Research methods

I asked 65 students from IBD about 12 different questions as I mentioned before viaGoogle Forms I created a form on Google with some questions so that people can accessand answer the question immediately I will also interviewed some students when we are

in break time and ask them some short questions immediately In addition, I could get theanswers right away without travelling

LITERATURE REVIEW

INTRODUCTION

Teamwork can be characterized as the process in which individuals work together in agroup to achieve a shared purpose or objective through collaboration, communication andsharing of vital information Teams have an important role in our professional andpersonal life Team work is undoubtedly an unavoidable life experience, even forindividuals who choose to work alone Today, because of its often powerful benefits,researchers are moving strongly and specifically in favor of collaboration, despite theease of individual work (Shneiderman, 2016) According to Shneiderman (2016),working in teams are really helpful in solving complex and difficult problems They alsoachieve better work by conducting more ambitious projects, offering complementaryskills and applying a range of testing methods In addition, teams now have larger socialnetworks than individuals do to collect feedback during study and disseminate findings asthey emerge Pauli (2018) pointed out in learning environment, teamwork will helpsensitive students conquer their fears and learn how to cope with criticism, because themore they engage in a team and make a contribution, the more positive they become.Making an attempt to do their best in partnership with others is vital to their owndevelopment which is going to support students in their future career

This study is going to include extensive research into the benefits of working in teams aswell as the reasons why team-working is an essential skill for students, especiallyundergraduates I will also investigate some methods which people can do to have betterskills of working in teams

BODY

1 The advantages of working in teams

Some research suggests that the feeling that we work with others can significantlyincrease our motivation to perform complex and demanding tasks, even though we are

basically working on our own According to Gaskell (2017), Stanford's research a fewyears ago showed that survey respondents who were primed to work collaboratively stuck

to their tasks were 64% longer than their independent colleagues, while also displayinghigher levels of engagement, lower feelings of depression and increased rates ofachievement A similar finding has also pointed out that companies encouragingcollaborative work are 5 times more likely to have great performance (Gaskell, 2017) Inaddition, Carr and Walton (2015) have concluded that even subtle recommendations to bepart of a team greatly improved the motivation and enjoyment in relation to difficulttasks, leading to greater perseverance, dedication and even higher levels of output

2 The importance of team-working skills

Teamwork can allow students to gain a wide variety of skills that are increasinglyrelevant to the business world Moreover, supportive community interactions have beenshown to contribute to learning outcomes, retention and overall college performance(Astin, 1997; Tinto, 1998; National Survey of Student Engagement, 2006, as cited in

“What are the benefits of group work?”, 2020) Group work may also strengthen therelevant skills to both group and individual work, such as the ability to split complicatedtasks into parts and phases, schedule and manage time, refine understanding throughdiscussion and clarification, provide and receive feedback on results, questionassumptions and develop stronger communication skills (“What are the benefits of groupwork?”, 2020) When working as a group, students learn how to listen to their leaders andpeers in order to accomplish their responsibilities Teamwork skills allow students toexpress their ideas and thoughts with respect and trust in a group environment(Marlborough, 2019) According to Wehbe (2017), in today's information economy, most

of our jobs include engaging with people who are not in the same field As a result, theneed for successful teamwork skills is essential for any company The ability to succeed

as an individual and together with your colleagues or employees in collaboration is thesecret key to success In every department of the organisation, team work skills are

required to achieve success, and to make use of every opportunity you have to participate

in teamwork so that you can develop excellent communication skills (Wehbe, 2017)

3 How students improve their teamwork skills

There are various skills that people need in order to have an efficient teamwork and fromthat, they can produce incredibly results According to Shneiderman (2016), as a teammember, people should write a shared vision of the overall goals and explainresponsibilities, particularly when working in broad scattered teams In addition, teamsare best when they have regular and open conversations Teams in which a number ofpeople interact during meetings generally do better than the teams in which one or twopeople dominated the conversation Modest controversy is always a healthy one inchoosing between alternative directions and in cultivating trust among team members.(Shneiderman, 2016) Weir (2018) also showed that, what researchers call teamworkABCs are shaped by these deep-level factors: attitudes, activities and cognitivestatements that collectively influence whether a team achieves its objectives Theseelements rely to some extent on the context and goals of the team Another research hasfound that individuals who appreciate working in groups appear to be both moreoptimistic and more cooperative in team environments When team members have a highdegree of conscientiousness, they are better at self-regulation of their teamwork (Bell,

2018, as cited in Weir, 2018)

CONCLUSION

With the existing research studies, we will summarise the information about theimportant of team working skills Based on our study, we will analyse these informationand research on students in IBD to collect more primary sources

In learning, groups can be formed when there are the assignments of teachers or by anumber of friends who have the same interest in learning about a topic that combines intogroups to exchange, share and support in order to achieve better academic results (Thanh,2016) According to Thanh (2016), Vietnam was said to be "where there is almost noteamwork culture, or there is very little".

Figure 2: IBD students roles in working teams

Object5

This bar chart demonstrates IBD students roles when they do the teamwork In thissurvey, there are 6 main roles of members in a team, which are leader, shaper,coordinator, completer and team-worker It is noticeable that students usually chose to bethe team-worker whenever they work in groups

First and foremost, being the leader of a team was chosen by 25 people (39.4% of total),which is considered as a slight important role of IBD students when working in teams.Secondly, team-worker is said to be the most popular role of students in teams by 36/ 65respondents (56%) Besides, there are 22 students (33.3%) being shapers when they are in

a team, which is higher than the coordinators with 21 people (31,8%) The number ofstudents choosing to be the completer or finisher in teams was the lowest, at 20 people(30,3% of total)

The positions and obligations of the leader or facilitator and the individual membersworking within the group or team are discussed, the team workers are typically the most

common members of the team, willing to compromise and work efficiently for the benefit

of the group (Group and Team Roles, 2013)

Figure 3: Students opinions about working in teams

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The bar chart illustrates the different opinions of IBD students when they are working ingroups It can be seen from the graph that most of students thought that when they haveteam-working, they can improve many skills and other team members can provide themwith great ideas The number of people having two of these opinions was 35 and 36(51.3% and 53%), respectively

There are 19 respondents feeling enjoyable with the teamwork (30.3% of total), whileonly 14 people who was unsatisfied with the tasks they have to work (21.2%) Thenumber of people who cannot get along with other team members was 11 (16.7%), which

was three times lower than those who think they can have skills improved when working

in teams There are some other opinions of students who think they more prefer to workindependently in order to achieve more excellent results (7.5%)

According to Ogbonnaya (2019), although team-working can lead to innovative ideas andstrong performance, it can also be stressful when conflicts arise, people become tooreliant on each other, some do not receive their fair share of credit, there are variouscoordination costs that come with making teams work well

Figure 4: Reasons why students unsatisfied when working in teams

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The bar chart shows figure for the reasons why students unsatisfied when working inteams There are numerous reasons for being unsatisfied when working in teams of IBDstudents shown in the survey, namely, teammates behaviour, leaders, connection betweenmembers and assigned tasks

The most popular reason why students are unsatisfied with the team-working is thebehaviour of other members in teams, which was chosen by 45 people (68% of total).Additionally, the second most important reason leading to the dissatisfaction was theconnection between members during the process of team-working, with 38 people chosethis section (59.1%) There are 18 students are displeased with their assigned tasks whenworking in teams ( at about 27.3%) Finally, only 4 students believed that the leaders ofteams are the reason of their dissatisfaction with the team-working (6% of total).

Regarding to Premuzic (2017), psychologists recognize there is a universal where humanneed to belong to groups, but they also understand that people are not always predisposed

to working well with other people Individual ambitions also sabotage team spirit and thecompetitive impulses of people end up finding goals for fellow team members rather thanrival teams (Premuzic, 2017)

Figure 5: Skills that team members need in the process of team working

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The bar chart illustrates some different skills which IBD students think each teammember need in the process of team-working

It is clearly shown that the most necessary skill that students should have when they areworking in teams was the ability to build rapport, with 72.7% of respondents chose thisskill (49 people) Besides, communication skill was also important, ranked the secondplace with 44 answers (68.2%)

There are 31 students who chose conflict resolution as a skill that team members need inthe process of working in teams, which accounted for 45.5% of total The feedback skilland persuasion and influencing skill shared the same number of respondents, which wasthe two lowest figures compared to other skills, with 28 respondents (42.4%)

Figure 6: Factors that create a good teamwork

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The bar chart demonstrates some elements which IBD students think that would help tocreate a good teamwork

Firstly, the survey conducted shown that the highest number of students chose thewillingness to share and listen which will create an excellent team working, exactly 51out of 65 respondents (78.8%) The second most important factor of a teamwork waslearning to commit to decisions and plans of action, which was chosen by 40 students ( atabout 60.6% of total)

Another common answer in this survey was the focus on achieving collective results ofall members in a group, with 33 respondents, which was 51.5% Trust among teammembers is also considered as an essential elements that students said it can create a goodteamwork, which was chosen by 30 students (47%) The preparation to engage in debatearound ideas of members in teams also shared nearly the same with trust among people,with 29 students chose this factor, which was 45.5% of total

According to Tarricone & Luca (2002), the surveyed team of students was highlysuccessful in developing a quality product, as well as being highly collaborative In almostall of their interview answers, focus group meetings and questionnaires, it was clear thatthis team was committed to: dedication to team progress and mutual objectives,interdependence and interpersonal skills (Tarricone & Luca, 2002)

Figure 7: Reasons why students prefer to work in groups

The graph (Figure 7) shows the information about the reasons why IBD studentsinterested in working in teams

The most important reason is teamwork can help them improve the productivity as well

as bring better achievements, which was chosen by 47 out of 65 respondents ( at 72,7%).The reason of facilitating idea generation and creativity was followed by 37 votes fromstudents, which accounted for 56.1% of total

The number of students who prefer to work in groups because it help to boost theirmorale and motivation was 14 people lower than those who think group work facilitate

idea generation and creativity, was about 34.8% There are only 12 respondents whothink they can have conflict resolution skills thanks to the team working, which waschosen by 18.2% of total.

Many people believe that teams are often helpful in tackling complex and importantproblems (Shneiderman, 2016) According to Shneiderman, teamwork often producebetter work because they take on more ambitious projects, bring complementaryknowledge and apply diverse research methods

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Figure 8: Reasons why students dislike to work in group

The bar chart (Figure 8) illustrates some reasons for IBD students who do not prefer towork as a team with other people

The most common reason chosen by students was the blame and responsibility issuesbecause they think other members in the group did not have enough responsibility with