Abstract:

Research question:
How can task conflict management support online learning for entrepreneurial student teams solving internationalization challenges? The research objective is to identify the implications of task conflict in international student teams and to propose blended learning activities for managing task, interpersonal and process conflicts in online project work.

Approach:
Globalization, technological innovation, and, more recently COVID-19 pandemic has resulted in increased dependency on online teamwork. Online or virtual teams involve geographically, organizationally and temporally (different time zones) dispersed members who connect through a combination of digital media to accomplish a range of team-specific tasks and goals. X-Culture global student teams have performed export development projects for enterprises. These teams use only online communication and knowledge co-creation tools in their learning process. Students are placed in international virtual teams that consist of team members from different countries. Each year around 10 000 people from over 100 countries take part in X-Culture, and over 60 000 students have completed the X-Culture project. The sample consisted of 2992 business students working in 596 virtual teams across 117 different countries during the 2019 spring semester. The quantitative study used X-Culture surveys related to task and other conflicts experienced by student teams during 6 weeks of project work and linked these data to assessments of final project reports. The dataset was comprised of individual data sets, which had 2992 observations, and team-level data, which had 596 observations. Our qualitative information based on 5 years X-Culture blended learning instruction is applied to develop task conflict management solutions in blended learning.

Results, originality and implications:
Findings revealed that team diversity, based on the difference in team members' countries, positively affected team performance directly and even more indirectly through task conflicts in an online project cooperation environment. Teams that had intensive task conflicts during the first weeks of project work had better final learning performance than others teams. The originality of the research is in combining large-scale quantitative survey analysis and qualitative reflection of blended learning processes and instruction methods for managing task conflicts in online entrepreneurial learning. Understanding that diversity works through task conflicts is a valuable insight for students. The presentation suggests how university education can support the constructive way to deal with task conflicts. Experience of preparing students to manage task, interpersonal and process conflicts in online team learning is presented.

Keywords:

Blended learning, globalization, online projects, learning teams, tasks conflicts.