Companies and their executives are concluding that to accomplish their complex tasks and all-encompassing missions and goals, they must step outside the traditional realms of teamwork and partnership and engage in cross-cultural and multinational alliances. One of the principal areas affecting teamwork today, especially in diverse workplaces, is the variety of cultural value orientations that the members relate to. To better prepare students for joining global enterprises, it is necessary to understand their cultural orientations and how those may influence their teamwork interactions. This study used a mixed methods design to characterize computer and information technology undergraduate students’ cultural orientations and their cultural awareness in the context of teamwork experiences. The data for the study was collected in the form of a reflection assignment that was implemented during the first week of classes as a way to promote students’ cultural awareness and how that may play out in their teamwork interactions. The reflection assignment had two parts: (i) a survey and (ii) reflection questions. The study used descriptive statistics and t-tests to analyze the survey (quantitative data), and thematic analysis was conducted to analyze the reflection questions (qualitative data). Our analysis of the quantitative data revealed that students identified the following core values they are Individualism, Equality, Monochronic, Meritocracy, Informality, Personal Efficacy, and Directness, and these values resonated with most of the students in class. Corresponding qualitative themes that emerged regarding students’ beliefs of how those values may play out in their teamwork experience were (a) Treating everyone equally and understanding others, (b) Increasing temporal Awareness, (c) Enacting effective communication, (d) Monitoring the progress of team members and (e) Establishing rules and boundaries.
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Transformative Pedagogy as a Reflective Approach for Promoting Intercultural Self-Awareness in the Context of Teamwork
This study implemented transformative pedagogy as a reflective approach to promote intercultural self-awareness and its potential consequences in the context of teamwork. The context was a second-year systems analysis and design course with 118 students in the fall 2021 semester and 155 students in the spring 2022 semester. The research question was: What are students' beliefs regarding their own cultural values and the potential implications of those values on their teamwork interactions? Findings from the study indicate that students realized that team dynamics and values are crucial to team experience. We found that students believed that commitment to the team and communication of values contributed to the experience of teamwork and teamwork success. Students also believed that coming together and making decisions together in a collectivistic manner would help the progress of the team.
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- PAR ID:
- 10521019
- Publisher / Repository:
- IEEE
- Date Published:
- ISBN:
- 979-8-3503-3642-9
- Page Range / eLocation ID:
- 1 to 6
- Format(s):
- Medium: X
- Location:
- College Station, TX, USA
- Sponsoring Org:
- National Science Foundation
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