Ready for action: Developing classroom teams to prepare students for the business world

Abstract

The ability to work in teams is one of the most highly valued professional skills. Preparing students to operate effectively in workplace teams, therefore, is naturally a priority for business and management faculty. Managing course-based teams, however, can be a challenging and complicated process for many instructors. This article offers instructors practical solutions to those challenges. After a brief review of relevant literature on workplace and course-based teams, the authors provide the results of a survey of 207 current undergraduate business students conducted in the fall of 2015 in which the authors sought to determine: (1) the factors that influence students' best and worst team experiences, and (2) undergraduate students' overall impressions of teamwork. Based on these results, the authors developed two successful-though very different-strategies for managing the classroom group process, which were implemented in business communication courses in the spring of 2016.