Exploring the paradoxes and tensions encountered by business faculty teaching teamwork in a changing academic environment

Author Identifier (ORCID)

Linda Riebe

https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1133-8221

Abstract

The contemporary university is now characterised as a complex working environment wherein faculty must negotiate increasing demands for accountability, performativity, and productivity. A multiplicity of expectations adds to this complexity. Specifically, expectations set by employers in developing ‘work-ready’ graduates have compelled faculty to negotiate interdependent contradictions that focus on developing employability skills alongside technical skills. This qualitative study reports on the lived experiences of 30 business school teaching faculty, negotiating tensions as they relate to the teaching of one type of employability skill: teamwork. Paradox theory is appropriated to better understand how faculty perceive their professional environment and practices related to teamwork pedagogy. The findings reveal that faculty navigate the performing/learning, performing/organising and performing/belonging paradoxes of teamwork pedagogy by passively suppressing tensions or through proactive acceptance strategies.

Document Type

Journal Article

Date of Publication

2022

Publication Title

Higher Education Research & Development

Publisher

Taylor & Francis

School

School of Business and Law

RAS ID

37028

Comments

Riebe, L., Whitsed, C., & Girardi, A. (2022). Exploring the paradoxes and tensions encountered by business faculty teaching teamwork in a changing academic environment. Higher Education Research & Development, 41(7), 2338-2352.

https://doi.org/10.1080/07294360.2021.1979939

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Link to publisher version (DOI)

10.1080/07294360.2021.1979939