Systematic Review: Teamwork in Australian University Business Programs

This systematic literature review investigates the effectiveness of teaching teamwork in Australian business schools, aiming to understand its role in enhancing student efficacy and identifying challenges in the educational process. The review, based on six articles meeting specific inclusion criteria, reveals limited research on teamwork teaching in Australian business schools despite its recognized importance. Key themes include the necessity of knowledge in teamwork, the role of teamwork in developing ethical decision-making skills, and the lack of participation from international students due to communication and cultural barriers. The review concludes that while teamwork enhances collaboration, cognitive skills, and information sharing, addressing the identified issues through evidence-based pedagogy, language support for international students, and cultural competency training for national students is crucial for promoting effective teamwork skills. Desklib offers access to similar assignments and resources for students.

Running head: SYSTEMATIC REVIEW
SYSTEMATIC REVIEW
Name of the Author
Name of the University
Author’s Note

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Introduction:
With the growing business in the international market, team working skill identified as
one of the most demanding skills Australian employers demand from their employees. As
observed from the mountain of literature, while the teaching of team work is integrated part of
the many disciplines, very little discipline of business focuses on the skill in Australia. As
discussed by Mladenovic et al. (2019), team working is now identified as one of the prime skills
and selection requirement. Any researchers highlighted that team working and open
communication are two important skills required for the higher education. While countries such
as United States and united Kingdome select this criteria as benchmark of higher education and
success of business, in Australia the skills mainly observed in health care sectors to provide
patient centric care.
Aim:
The aim of the paper is to understand the role of the team working skills in enhancing efficacy
of students in Australian University Business Disciplines and to identify the issues observed in
teaching and educational process.
Objective:
The objectives of the study are following
 To understand the role of the team working skills in enhancing efficacy of students in
Australian University Business Disciplines:
 To identify the issues observed in teaching and educational process.

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 To suggest the probable means by which Australian business schools can mitigate the
problems
Research question:
What are the effectiveness of teaching team working in the Australian business schools?
Description of search process:
As discussed by Barnham, (2015), In order to gain the answer of the research question,
the most appropriate nature of the study is systematic review, which provides possible unbiased
authority and research. For conducting systematic reviews, this research used Pickering and
Byrne’s method where inclusion and exclusion criteria was used to obtain accurate articles for
the themes. The research was conducted using electronic database such as ProQuest. The key
term used for the study include “team working”, “role of team working” ,” teaching of team
working business school of Australia”. The inclusion and exclusion criteria for the research were
following:
Inclusion criteria Exclusion criteria
 All journals published within 2016 to
2019 was included in the study.
 All peer review journals were
included
 All journals published in English
language were included
 All relevant papers undertaking the
management of pressure ulcer were
 All journals published other than
2016 to 2019 was excluded in the
study
 All non-reviewed articles were
excluded
 All articles published in other than
English article were excluded.
 All journal of management, nursing,

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included in the study.
 All journal of management, nursing,
medical, engineering course were
included.
 All journals which fit into check list of
CRAAP were included in the study
 All papers that are based on online or
virtual learning were included.
medical, engineering course were
excluded.
 All journal which fit into other than
check list of CRAAP were excluded
in the study
 All papers that are based on other than
online or virtual learning were
excluded.
Once search terms were given the databases, a total of 98 journals were located and for
eliminating duplication these articles further filtered (appendix 1). After elimination of all
irrelevant articles, only 6 journals found which met the criteria of CRAAP.
Result and theme generation:
Over the three years covered in this review, only 6 articles were obtained that met the
criteria of CRAAP and inclusion. Research on the application of teamwork teaching and team-
based learning in the business schools of Australia is very limited in the literature. Despite the
fact that many of the business school in Australia stated team working is one of the effective
quality of the graduate students, minimal appropriate team-based learning observed in the
Australian business schools. This lack of attention to the team working in the business field
compared to other fields in Australia further made it difficult to obtain educational issues. The
summary table will provide the evidence the research for this systematic review.

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No of
journal
Author(s) (Year) Article title Research design/
Size/Discipline
Content
1. Bratianu, Constantin and
Elena-
MadalinaVatamanescu
(2017)
Students’
perception on
developing
conceptual
generic skills for
business: a
knowledge-
based approach.
Qualitative
design / n: 500
students
involved in
management and
business
undergraduate
and graduate
programs
Student’s
perception
2. Jackson, Denise, David
Rowbottom, Sonia Ferns,
and Diane McLaren (2017)
Employer
understanding of
work-integrated
learning and the
challenges of
engaging in
work placement
opportunities
Quantitative
study / n: e 118
employers of the
private sectors
Educator’s
perception
3 Huang, Chung-Kai, and
Chun-Yu Lin (2017)
Flipping
Business
Education:
Transformative
y. Mixed
research
methods
including

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Use of Team-
Based Learning
in Human
Resource
Management
Classrooms
surveys and
interviews/ 104
students and two
professors.
4. Mladenovic, Rosina, Nonna
Martinov-Bennie, and
Amani Bell (2019)
Business
students’
insights into
their
development of
ethical decision-
making
The qualitative
study is based
on the
reflections of the
business
students
Student’s
perceptions
5 Gribble, Catriona, Jill
Blackmore, and Mark
Rahimi. (2016)
Challenges to
providing work
integrated
learning to
international
business
students at
Australian
universities
59 interviews
from
international
students,
universities,
government,
employers and
professional
bodies:
Qualitative
international
students,
universities,
government,
employers and
professional
bodies

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study
6 Luethge, Denise J., David
Raska, Bertie M. Greer, and
Christina O'Connor, (2016)
Crossing the
Atlantic:
integrating
cross-cultural
experiences into
undergraduate
business courses
using virtual
communities
technology
Observational
study
Perspective of
the authors
Theme generated from the reviews:
Theme 1: Knowledge of teamwork
In the majority of the learning, the researchers focused on the lack of accurate knowledge
of team-based learning. The majority of the research showed that the composition of teams is
somewhat contentious issues that affected not only teachers but also students of the business

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school. As discussed by 3 journals1123based on business courses in higher education where the
integration of TBL (team based learning) is crucial to develop for the students which promote
knowledge sharing, information and provide the understanding the organization. However, the
lack of appropriate knowledge and lack of cultural sensitivity is the prime reason behind
implementing team-based learning. Therefore, educators require evidence based knowledge of
teamwork to teach team working to the business student.
Theme 2: Team work helps in development of ethical decision making skills
Effective team-work among the business students helps in the expansion of the ethical
decision making skills. Working as a team helps the group of students to get exposed to different
types of cultural, religious and spiritual beliefs. This proper understanding of different cultural,
religious and social perspective helps dealing with effective conflict management. The skills of
conflict management help in improving the ethical decision making skills of the business
students. The observational studies also showed that students, who are taught under team-based
approach in the business schools, are more likely to develop sophisticated and contextualized
views about the ethical issues centring the business world along with having a clear perspective
1Bratianu, Constantin, and Elena-MadalinaVatamanescu. "Students’ perception on developing conceptual generic
skills for business: a knowledge-based approach." VINE Journal of Information and Knowledge Management
Systems 47, no. 4 (2017): 490-505.
2Jackson, Denise, David Rowbottom, Sonia Ferns, and Diane McLaren."Employer understanding of work-integrated
learning and the challenges of engaging in work placement opportunities." Studies in Continuing Education 39, no.
1 (2017): 35-51
3Huang, Chung-Kai, and Chun-Yu Lin. "Flipping Business Education: Transformative Use of Team-Based Learning
in Human Resource Management Classrooms." Journal of Educational Technology & Society 20, no. 1 (2017).

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about the ethical concepts at the government and social level. The training of business students
through team work based perspective deals with activities based on current news and generating
debate or opinions based on that news. This helps in the development of various ethical
perspectives about the business and thereby helping to prosper in the later stage of their
profession4.
Theme 3: Lack of participation of the international students in team work
In the team-work based activities among the business students in Australia, there is a lack
of proper or adequate participation of the international students. This can be regarded as one of
the draw-backs of the team-work based educational approach among the students. The main
reason behind the lack of participation of the international students in the team work is
communication problem or gap in proper knowledge about English as a first language. Apart
from communication problems, there is a cultural gap in the level of understanding of the
international students that prevents them from taking part in group based activities. Moreover,
the national students lack proper cultural competency and they frequently bully of look down
upon the Australian business students who are from the international origin. Providing internal
students with proper access to the learning about the English as the second language will help to
increase the language proficiency and thereby helping them to take part in the team based
activities5. The students from Australian origin must be trained in the domain of cultural
competency in order overcome the cultural bias towards the international students. Thus
4 Mladenovic, Rosina, Nonna Martinov-Bennie, and Amani Bell. "Business students’ insights into their development
of ethical decision-making." Journal of Business Ethics 155, no. 1 (2019): 275-287.
5 Gribble, Catriona, Jill Blackmore, and Mark Rahimi. "Challenges to providing work integrated learning to
international business students at Australian universities." Higher education, skills and work-based learning 5, no. 4
(2016): 401-416.

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multipronged approach will helpful in increasing the provision for team work among the
Australian business students6.
Discussion
In discussion, it can be stated that the team-work is an effective means for increasing the
effective conflict management skills of the business students. Working with diverse group of
team members helps to increase the resilience and thereby helping to increase the conflict
management skills7. Ability to work with a diverse group of professionals helps to flourish in
business in the later stages of the professional life. However, there is a lack of participation of
the international students in teamwork bases educational approach due to lack of proper
understanding about English. Moreover, the national level students are culturally biased leading
to further decrease in the chances of developing multi-cultural team in colleges or business
schools. Evidence-based knowledge in drafting team-work pedagogy among business students
while prompting second language (English) development among international students and
teaching cultural competency among national students might prove to be helpful in promoting
team skills.
Conclusion and implication:
The purpose of this systematic literature review was to understand the efficiency of team
working and identify any issues observed in the business school of Australia. In the research
total, 6 articles were identified which suggested that team-based learning has been effective to
6 Luethge, Denise J., David Raska, Bertie M. Greer, and Christina O'Connor. "Crossing the Atlantic: integrating
cross-cultural experiences into undergraduate business courses using virtual communities technology." Journal of
Education for Business 91, no. 4 (2016): 219-226.
7 Flesch, Ashley. "A Study of Teamwork Among Business Undergraduate Students." PhD diss., Concordia
University, 2017.

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enhance the collaboration between students which also enhanced their cognitive skills, decision
making and information sharing a skill.
The review identified three themes such as teamwork assisted in the development of
ethical decision-making skills, lack of participation of the international students in teamwork and
knowledge of would be helpful in motivating the students to engage in teamwork, student-
centred curriculum design and provide teachers an idea to mitigate the issue and facilitate their
strength.

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Bibliography
Barnham, Chris. "Quantitative and qualitative research: Perceptual foundations." International
Journal of Market Research 57, no. 6 (2015): 837-854.
Bratianu, Constantin, and Elena-MadalinaVatamanescu. "Students’ perception on developing
conceptual generic skills for business: a knowledge-based approach." VINE Journal of
Information and Knowledge Management Systems 47, no. 4 (2017): 490-505.
Flesch, Ashley. "A Study of Teamwork Among Business Undergraduate Students." PhD diss.,
Concordia University, 2017.
Gribble, Catriona, Jill Blackmore, and Mark Rahimi. "Challenges to providing work integrated
learning to international business students at Australian universities." Higher education, skills
and work-based learning 5, no. 4 (2016): 401-416.
Huang, Chung-Kai, and Chun-Yu Lin. "Flipping Business Education: Transformative Use of
Team-Based Learning in Human Resource Management Classrooms." Journal of Educational
Technology & Society 20, no. 1 (2017).
Jackson, Denise, David Rowbottom, Sonia Ferns, and Diane McLaren."Employer understanding
of work-integrated learning and the challenges of engaging in work placement
opportunities." Studies in Continuing Education 39, no. 1 (2017): 35-51.
Luethge, Denise J., David Raska, Bertie M. Greer, and Christina O'Connor. "Crossing the
Atlantic: integrating cross-cultural experiences into undergraduate business courses using virtual
communities technology." Journal of Education for Business 91, no. 4 (2016): 219-226