Teamwork Toolkit

Student experiences

My experience with working in teams has been mixed.  Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't.  Last year there were five of us.  Three of us worked really well together and the other two just didn't get it.  They didn't show up for meetings, they didn't do their share of the work, which made it very difficult.  But I guess that's part of the experience - learning to deal with that sort of thing.

Griffith Student, 2004

Employers speak

The graduates we employ, particularly from Griffith, draw on those team skills, but at Griffith they are used to drawing not just from one disciplinary context, but drawing on whichever disciplinary context will enable them to work through that problem and analyse the issue.

Employer of Griffith Arts Graduates, 2003

Teamwork is extremely important to our business, and we can accept one or two introverts but we are looking for fairly 'normal' people.  Sometimes we get brilliant people but we don't employ them because they are loners - very difficult.  Unless we find that they can mix with other people and work with them it is extremely difficult.

Harvey, L., Moon, S., & Geall, V. (1997).  Graduates' Work: Organisational Change and Students' Attributes. 
Centre for Research into Quality.  University of Central England in Birmingham.

Employers want interactive and personal attributes. The core interactive attributes are communication, teamwork and interpersonal skills.  These are necessary to communicate formally and informally, with a wide range of people both internal and external to the organization; to relate to, and feel comfortable with, people at all levels in the organization as well as a range of external stakeholders, to be able to make and maintain relationships as circumstances change; work effectively in teams, often more than one team at once, and to be able to re-adjust roles from one project situation to another in an ever-shifting work situation.

Harvey, L., Moon, S., & Geall, V. (1997). Graduates' Work: Organisational Change and Students' Attributes. Centre for Research into Quality. University of Central England in Birmingham. Retrieved from the World Wide Web on 23 October, 2006.
http://www.uce.ac.uk/crq/publications/gw/index.htm

Traditionally, universities have encouraged and rewarded individual effort. Students have tended to learn alone and be assessed individually.  When they graduate, they can often founder in a work environment which values group effort and collaborative teamwork.  Students can, however, learn to be effective team members in virtually any learning context at university (e.g., in laboratory sessions; in project work; in tutorials and seminars; in case studies; in problem-solving exercises) - providing the task, processes and learning outcomes are structured carefully.

Many employers consider the ability to work in teams, not just one team but the ability to 'team hop' from one to another according to a particular function, as a crucial attribute.

Harvey, L., Moon, S., & Geall, V. (1997). Graduates' Work: Organisational Change and Students' Attributes. Centre for Research into Quality. University of Central England in Birmingham. Retrieved from the World Wide Web on 23 October, 2006.
http://www.uce.ac.uk/crq/publications/gw/index.htm

Research Findings

“Companies were concerned that education and training systems were not providing people with appropriate skills in areas that were increasingly vital in creating the type of workplace culture in which innovation thrives.  In particular, a number of companies noted that management education was focused on finance and marketing but was not providing graduates with the 'soft' skills, such as teamwork, that enabled the innovative use of these capabilities.”

Business Council of Australia (2006). New Concepts in Innovation:  The Keys to a Growing Australia, p. 25
Retrieved from the World Wide Web on 23 October, 2006:
http://www.bca.com.au/content.asp?newsid=99520

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