UNIVERSITY STUDENTS’ ATTITUDES TOWARD TEAMWORK: A CROSS-CULTURAL STUDY

Team work has been highly encouraged among University students of Higher Education Institutions. However, little is known about students’ attitudes regarding this practice. The present study attempts to examine whether university students actually like to work with their colleagues and which advantages and disadvantages of team work they perceive. Students of the Faculty of Economics from two Universities participated in the study: University of Valencia in Spain and University of Split in Croatia. The empirical research was conducted in November-December 2016 and April 2017. A qualitative research was first performed to understand students’ general opinions regarding team work. A quantitative research was conducted then in order to get insights on their attitudes toward team work. Students from different cultural backgrounds participated in the research, as at both Universities national and international, i.e. Erasmus students were approached. This allowed us to obtain a holistic understanding on students’ attitudes toward team work and to compare the results from a cross-cultural point of view.