Abstract:

The purpose of this paper is to examine university students’ opinions of teamwork by considering both its perceived benefits and risks. The empirical research was conducted among more than 300 students at the University of Valencia in Spain attending two different study programs: Economics and Engineering. The sample consisted of both national and Erasmus students. Data were analysed and compared according to the students’ gender, disciplinary culture (Economics vs. Engineering study programs) and national culture (Spanish vs. Erasmus students). Overall, data indicated moderate levels of perceived benefits of teamwork and rather low levels of perceived risks, except for the perceived inequality dimension, which reached higher scores. While male and female students perceived benefits of the teamwork similarly, female students were significantly more aware of one specific dimension of perceived risks, i.e. interpersonal risks of teamwork. More differences were obtained when disciplinary culture was considered: while some of the perceived benefits were evaluated higher among students of Economics, others scored better among students of Engineering. However, perceived interpersonal risks obtained significantly higher scores among students of Economics. Finally, when national culture of students was observed, several significant differences were obtained in the case of perceived benefits. Regarding perceived risks, we found statically significant differences in the case of only one item of functional risk, which scored higher among Erasmus students.

Keywords:

Teamwork, gender, disciplinary culture, national culture, Erasmus students, University of Valencia.