Forming memories around shared experiences, whether something fun like grabbing a pizza or as emotionally straining as an employee strike, has a way of binding people together. But it could also motivate those performing different roles within the same company to socialize more and strengthen their working relationships, according to new research from Binghamton University, State University of New York.

TEAMWORK doesn't always work that well.

Aim/Purpose: This paper presents a study about changes in computer science and software engineering students’ perceptions of their soft skills during their progress through the Computer Science Soft Skills course. Background: Soft skills are often associated with a person’s social, emotional and cognitive capabilities. Soft skills are increasingly sought out and are well recognized by employers alongside standard qualifications. Therefore, high importance is attributed to soft skills in computer science and software engineering education. Methodology: Content analysis was applied to interpret, categorize and code statements from students’ course assignment answers. Data analysis was performed gradually at the three main stages of the course and by the two students’ study populations. Contribution: The paper highlights the variety of (a) soft skills that can be learnt in one course, both on the individual level and on the team level and (b) assignments that can be given to students to increase their awareness and motivation to practice and learn soft skills. Findings: Data analysis revealed the following: (a) five individual soft skills categories, with 95 skills, and five team-related soft skills categories, with 52 skills (in total, the students mentioned 147 soft skills); (b) course assignments and particularly team-based activities elicited student awareness of their individual soft skills, both as strengths and weaknesses; (c) students developed their reflection skills, particularly with respect to team-related soft skills; and (d) significant differences exist between the two groups of students in several categories. Recommendations for Practitioners: It is important to provide undergraduate students with opportunities to integrate soft skills during their training. Establishing a meaningful learning process, such as project-based learning, enables students to apply and develop soft skills when accompanied by reflective thought processes. Recommendation for Researchers: A similar course can be taught and be accompanied by similar analysis of students’ learning outcomes, to examine the influence of local culture on the characteristics of soft skills. Impact on Society: Increased awareness of soft skills in scientists and engineers’ undergraduate education. University graduates who will strengthen their variety of soft skills in their academic training process and will be more meaningful employees in the workplace and in society. Future Research: Our future research aims (a) to explore additional innovative ways to increase students’ learning processes, awareness and practices in relation to soft skills and (b) to research how students’ soft skills are developed during the entire undergraduate studies both on the individual level and the team level.

Aim/Purpose: This paper explores the benefits and challenges of experiencing virtual multi-cultural teamwork in order to learn entrepreneurship. Background: Entrepreneurial eco-system usually requires working in international, virtual multi-cultural diverse teams. Higher education institutes are trying to educate future generation of entrepreneurs, coping with challenges derived from the virtual work and cultural diversity. Prior research shows that traditional learning is not effective for entrepreneurial education. Methodology: An explorative study was conducted based on the BIPA project, a Bavarian (German)-Israeli Partnership Accelerator, which was held four times between 2015 and 2017. The project aims to experience entrepreneurial virtual multicul-tural teamwork via co-creation of tailored-solutions for challenges of German or Israeli corporates. Retrospective interviews with participants were held after finishing their mission, and analyzed. Contribution: This research contributes to the body of knowledge about multicultural diverse participants in virtual entrepreneurial environments, in order to work together. This situation raises new challenges, due to the combination of multicultural teamwork and the use of virtual communication. Findings: The multicultural teamwork was a trigger to participate, specifically in the con-text of entrepreneurship studies with those two cultures, German and Israeli, which were found by participants as complementary, stimulating and fruitful, although challenging. Through experience, participants improved their entrepreneurial skills and mindset. The major teamwork challenges that were found included conflicts concerning free-riding, as well as communication challenges, due to virtual, language and cultural communication competencies. Recommendations for Practitioners: At a practical level, results can be useful for global companies, showing the benefits of virtual teamwork of employees in different locations, both in terms of reducing expenses and improving innovation. Moreover, managers can motivate employees by highlighting personal benefits, such as cultural awareness and improving their entrepreneurial skills and mindset. In addition, faculty may use this kind of experience to enhance entrepreneurial learning skills and mindset. Recommendations for Researchers : At the theoretical level, this research advances the body of knowledge of entrepreneurial multicultural teamwork in a virtual environment. In this research, the teams worked for a short time together (14 weeks) and had a week of face-to-face interaction with their team members. It is recommended to examine long-term teamwork, and how it affects teamwork challenges, as well as entrepreneurial learning. This research found the combination of German-Israeli cultures as stimulating entrepreneurial teamwork. It is recommended to examine other cultural combinations in teams, in order to be able to generalize findings. Impact on Society: Understanding the needs, benefits, and challenges of entrepreneurial multicul-tural teams working in a virtual environment can be useful to current global entrepreneurial eco-system, which is commonly using this kind of teamwork. Future Research: ‎This study included teams from two cultures: German and Israeli. Research must be expanded to different cultures and to groups compounded from more than two cultures. Moreover, the combination of virtual communication and face-to-face meetings in different milestones during the timeline of the teamwork must be further examined, especially in longer projects.

Aim/Purpose: The purpose of this study is to discover usage differences in task performance by students of different cultures, by examining procrastination patterns from a national cultural perspective and exploring the effect of multicultural virtual teamwork on students’ individual procrastination. Background: This study aims to examine higher-education entrepreneurial learning in the context of multicultural virtual teamwork, as performed during participation on a Global Entrepreneurship course. Methodology: The methodology consists of quantitative comparative data analytics preceding and subsequent to intercultural team activities. This research is based on analyses of objective data collected by Moodle, the LMS used in the In2It project, in its built-in log system from the Global Entrepreneurship course website, which offers students diverse entities of information and tasks. In the examined course, there were 177 participants, from three different countries: United Kingdom, France and Israel. The students were grouped into 40 multicultural virtual (not face-to-face) teams, each one comprised of participants from at least two countries. The primary methodology of this study is analytics of the extracted data, which was transferred into Excel for cleaning purposes and then to SPSS for analysis. Contribution: This study aims to discover the effects of multicultural teamwork on individual procrastination while comparing the differences between cultures, as there are only a few studies exploring this relation. The uniqueness of this study is using and analyzing actual data of student procrastination from logs, whereas other studies of procrastination in multicultural student teams have measured perceived procrastination, collected using surveys. Findings: The results show statistical differences between countries in procrastination of individual assignments before team working: students from UK were the most procrastinators and Israeli students were the least procrastinators, but almost all students procrastinated. However, the outcome of the teamwork was submitted almost without procrastination. Moreover, procrastination in individual assignments performed after finishing the multicultural teamwork dramatically decreased to 10% of the students’ prior individual procrastination. Recommendations for Practitioners: The results from this study, namely, the decline of the procrastination after the multicultural virtual teamwork, can be used by global firms with employees all over the world, working in virtual multicultural teams. Such firms do not need to avoid multicultural teams, working virtually, as they can benefit from this kind of collaboration. Recommendation for Researchers: These results can be also beneficial for academic researchers from different cultures and countries, working together in virtual multicultural teams. Impact on Society: Understanding the positive effect of virtual multicultural teamwork, in mitigating the negative tendency of students from diverse cultures to procrastinate, as concluded in this study, can provide a useful tool for higher education or businesses to mitigate procrastination in teamwork processes. It can also be used as an experiential learning tool for improving task performance and teamwork process. Future Research: The relation between procrastination and motivation should be further examined in relation to multicultural virtual teams. Further research is needed to explore the effect of multicultural virtual teamwork during the teamwork process, and the reasoning for this effect.

Washington — Better outreach, collaboration and information sharing among federal agencies is needed to improve worker safety in the meat and poultry slaughter and processing industries, the Government Accountability Office concluded in a recently released report.

In 2020, surges of covid-19 patients challenged the ability of hospitals to manage the operation of their emergency rooms (ERs).

We all work in teams, from families, to companies, and everything in between. So what's the secret to doing it better? This hour, TED speakers share surprising strategies for successful teamwork. Guests include activist Hajer Sharief, social psychologist Amy Edmondson and private equity investor Pete Stavros.

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Rackley Roofing has set a high bar for other commercial contractors to reach through its innovations and culture that embraces inclusiveness and diversity.

Group projects founder when students don't work well together. Here's the latest thinking on evaluating students on both content mastery and collaboration skills.

Practicing family medicine is really hard; the emotional toll of sharing patients’ distress, vulnerability, and trauma can build up and become overwhelming. A family physician experienced such a moment during one particularly complex morning. Feeling nearly ready to walk out of patient care, she reached out to the team nurse, who helped her get through the moment and re-engage with the waiting patients. Sharing vulnerability in the moment, and later reflecting and deciding to write about it shows the power of prioritizing teamwork in practice.

From casual acoustic melodies at the coffee shop to throbbing electronic beats at teen clothing outlets, music is used to mold customer experience and behavior. But what impact does it have on employees?

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Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, basketball legend, New York Times best-selling author, and filmmaker.

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Frederick J. Bloom
Jul 1, 2010; 23:165-169
From Research to Practice

Library administration.

Group projects founder when students don't work well together. Here's the latest thinking on evaluating students on both content mastery and collaboration skills.

Lewis Hamilton said that he and Valtteri Bottas are on the same page and that is the reason for their success, unlike the Ferrari drivers.

NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory uses teamwork every day to accomplish incredible scientific feats.

Runion, Meryl