Abstract:

In this highly dynamic complex business world teams are of cardinal importance for organizations in attaining their goals as well as being successful. Several studies provided support for the positive influence that team working might exert in terms of efficacy and efficiency, as well as in performance and productivity in workplace settings. However, in order to achieve such potential positive effects teams need to be developed and nurtured or, in other words, they must be built. In fact team building is one of the most commonly applied interventions for group development in organizations today. This kind of intervention is usually concerned with improving social relations and defining roles within a team, leading, if effective as intervention, to a higher cohesion (or a sense of connection group members have towards each other and towards the group as a whole), and therefore to a higher satisfaction and a better performance.

Team work is not only essential in workplace settings. It is also a capital part of contemporary higher education. Working in a team for students might lead to a higher individual achievement than working individually or in a competitive way. Moreover, be able to learn and develop team building skills could be of help for them in their current studies as well as later in their future careers. However, undergraduates’ attitudes and feelings towards working with others as a group are not always of a positive character. Such attitudes, feelings and beliefs would not only lead to a poor achievement in group task results terms, but also in fostering a sense of unity whereby the whole is greater than the simple sum of its parts, or in order words in building a team. Gamification -–the application of gameful thinking, and game mechanics, in non-game contexts to engage users in solving problems or carrying out tasks in a motivating and engaging way- could represent a key tool in building teams in higher educational context, being needed more empirical research at this level.

Psychology, Physiotherapy and Social Work university undergraduates, throughout their university training must acquire the competence to work in teams, as well as they are going to work frequently in teams in their careers. In this context, this paper deals with examining the effects of a serious game called “the group to the rescue” on undergraduates´ own perceptions of working and being a team. This simulation game implied for participants to be confronted to a new and a potential stressfully situation that needs a fast and effective solution as a group. Our results in sample composed by 130 Psychology, Physiotherapy and Social Work university undergraduates that participated in the game, showed that after play it, they perceived a stronger sense of being a team, and this sense of being a work team is highly influenced by the degree to which group engagement has been experienced. We also found that team building feelings after played the game predicted positively team work satisfaction and efficacy. These results are useful in order to building teams in higher educational contexts.

Keywords:

Gamification, teambuilding, Psychology, Physiotherapy and Occupational therapy undergraduates.