Abstract:

The aim of this paper is to draw upon and validate an instrument that measures the teamwork competence obtained from a sample of undergraduate students. There are several arguments that support the efficiency gain view of teamwork’s implementation within organizations. However, the efficiency argument could be biased since not all the teamwork’s perform optimally due to some member’s lack of teamwork skills (Nadal, Mañas, Bernadó, & Mora, 2015). In this sense, evaluating skills and competence for work in team of each member result, is crucial in the teamwork constitution and training (Gil, Rico, & Sánchez-Manzanares, 2008).

In recent years, Universities and Business schools has a central focus in the teamwork’s diagnostic, constitution and training (Pérez, Martín, Martín, Hernangómez, & Martín, 2007). In our research, we focus on a sample of undergraduate students that belong to a Chilean University and measure which factors explain the teamwork competency development. Using an exploratory factorial analysis, we drew a standardized scale that contained 30 items, which was applied to a sample size of 802 undergraduate students with an alfa of Cronbach, 0.92. Our main results suggest the existence of seven factors that influence teamwork’s success: collective efficacy, planning and adjusting, mutual performance monitoring, supportive behavior, working execution, information exchange and feedback.

Keywords:

Teamwork, scale, higher education, team competencies.