Team-Teaching in a Matrix Style: Addressing wicked-problems of MNEs in the context of sustainability

Abstract

While developing a new module on applied sustainability at a German University of Applied Sciences, in the study program Bachelor International Business as an elective, our planning was interrupted by the pandemic and we took this as a chance to adapt our teaching approach accorcingly. As sustainability management is a complex and multidimensional field we decided to implement a virtual team teaching approach, with three lecturers bringing in distinct knowledge. We developed a matrix team structure across students and lecturers. The aim of our approach was to equip students with knowledge from different sub-disciplines related to sustainability and to foster problem-solving competencies through both a team-oriented assignment and team-teaching. We demonstrate our approach and students’ evaluation on it. We show that working in a matrix is a challenge for some students, which encourages us to continue with this approach in order to foster students employability.