Teamwork functions - the pros and cons - How to maximize teamwork efficiency - final thesis

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
First of all, the authors would like to express the sincere thanks of gratitude to our
research supervisor, Ms. Hoang Van Trang who has always offered us enthusiastic
support, guidance, comments and compliments as well. Without her wholehearted
assistance and encouragements in each step of the research procedure, the study
would have never been accomplished.
Secondly, the completion of the research could not have been achievable without
the dedicating contribution of fourth-year students in Faculty of English Language
Teacher Education, University of Languages and International Studies. Their
devoted participation is the greatest motivation for us to accomplish the study. We
would like to extend our sincere thanks to all of them.
Last but not least, the researchers also wish to send the indeed gratitude to our
classmates, friends and other people who gave us feedbacks, suggestions and
cheers in the completion of the study.

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ABSTRACT
It is beyond a shadow of doubt that teamwork skills are increasingly appreciated in
workplace as well as in casual society. It is now widely acknowledged that the
ability to work in a team has become an obligatory prerequisite for any professional
occupation. Perceiving that fourth – year students of Faculty of English Language
Teacher Education in University of Languages and International Studies are going
to be the upcoming major labor forces in the marketplace, the research is conducted
to equip the population in specific and students in general necessarily essential
skills to outstandingly confront forthcoming job challenges. Based on the actual
results and other related materials, the researchers would like to expose the
common difficulties of working in a team and to propose some viable
recommendation afterwards. Through this research, it is expected that Vietnamese
students will take thoughtful consideration of acquiring teamwork skills to boost

the job performance as well as open up more avenues of employment.

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LIST OF PICTURES, CHARTS AND TABLES
Picture 1: Informal team _____________________________________________ 9
Picture 2: Traditional team ___________________________________________10
Picture 3: Virtual team______________________________________________ 11

Chart 1: The ideal number of members in a group ________________________22
Chart 2: Common assignment delegation methods________________________24
Chart 3: Common problems when working in a team _____________________ 24
Chart 4: Effective Communication Methods ____________________________ 28
Chart 5: Increasing Engagement Methods ______________________________ 30
Chart 6: Effective Tasks Delegation ___________________________________31
Chart 7: Possibility of confronting same problems in teamwork _____________32

Table 1: Common problems when working in a team _____________________ 24
Table 2: Evaluation of problems effects ________________________________26
Table 3: The important factors to a group success ________________________ 27
Table 4: Characteristics of ideal leaders ________________________________28

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TABLE OF CONTENTS
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT _____________________________________________________________i
ABSTRACT ________________________________________________________________________ ii
LIST OF PICTURES, CHARTS AND TABLES __________________________________________iii

TABLE OF CONTENTS _____________________________________________________________ iv
1. CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION ____________________________________________________1
1.1 Rationales for the study ___________________________________________________________1
1.2. Aims of the study ________________________________________________________________2
1.3. Scope of the study________________________________________________________________3
1.4. Methods of the study_____________________________________________________________ 4
1.5. Design of the study_______________________________________________________________5
2. CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW______________________________________________7
2.1. Definition of Teamwork__________________________________________________________ 7
2.2. Types of Teamwork _____________________________________________________________ 8
2.2.1. Informal team ________________________________________________________________9
2.2.2. Traditional team ______________________________________________________________9
2.2.3. Self‐directed team ____________________________________________________________10
2.2.4. Virtual team_________________________________________________________________10
2.3. The Importance of Teamwork____________________________________________________11
2.4. Benefits of Teamwork___________________________________________________________13
2.5. Difficulties arising in Teamwork__________________________________________________14
2.6. Related studies ________________________________________________________________16
3. CHAPTER 3: METHODOLOGY _________________________________________________ 18
3.1. Participants __________________________________________________________________ 18
3.2. Data collection instruments _____________________________________________________ 18
3.2.1. Quantitative methods _________________________________________________________18

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3.2.2. Survey questions ___________________________________________________________19
3.3. Data collection procedures _____________________________________________________20
3.3.1. Writing process ____________________________________________________________20
3.3.2 Delivery __________________________________________________________________20

3.3.3 Collection_________________________________________________________________21
4. CHAPTER 4: DATA ANALYSIS ________________________________________________22
4.1. Students attitudes towards teamwork____________________________________________22
4.1.1. The ideal number of members in a group ________________________________________22
4.1.2. The preferable members to form a group________________________________________ 23
4.1.3. The favorable role in a group _________________________________________________ 23
4.1.4. The relationship between leaders and members ___________________________________23
4.1.5. Common assignment delegation methods________________________________________23
4.2. Common problems when working in a team ______________________________________24
4.2.1. Common problems when working in a team______________________________________24
4.2.2. Negative effect evaluation of the problems_______________________________________25
4.3. Recommendations for teamwork difficulties ______________________________________26
4.3.1. Important factors to work thoroughly in a team ___________________________________26
4.3.2. Characteristics of ideal leaders ________________________________________________27
4.3.3. Effective Communication Methods_____________________________________________28
4.3.4. Responsibility Display Methods_______________________________________________ 29
4.3.5. Increasing Engagement Methods_______________________________________________29
4.3.6. Effective Tasks Delegation ___________________________________________________30
4.3.7. Potential problem solvers and the solving process _________________________________31
4.3.8. Evaluation after assignments__________________________________________________31
5. CHAPTER 5: FINDINGS _______________________________________________________33
5.1. Research Findings ____________________________________________________________33
5.1.1. Findings about students' attitudes towards teamwork _______________________________33

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5.1.2 Findings about problems when working in a team _________________________________35
5.1.3. Findings about what students often do to solve teamwork problems (solutions suggested by
respondents) ____________________________________________________________________37

5.2. Solutions___________________________________________________________________ 39
5.2.1. Suggestions before working in a team__________________________________________39
5.2.2. Suggestions during working in a team__________________________________________40
5.2.3. Suggestions after working in a team ___________________________________________41
5.3. Limitation of the study_______________________________________________________ 42
5.4. Recommendations for further stud_____________________________________________ 43
APPENDIX ____________________________________________________________________44
Survey Questionnaire
REFERENCES _________________________________________________________________50

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CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION
In recent modern society, teamwork skills have become a necessary proficiency as
well as essential requirement in workplace and casual society as well. Besides a
wide range of researches related to the topic, this is still an alluring issue for
further studies.
1.1. Rationales for the study
“Small teams outperform solo geniuses” (James, 2015). While Einstein or Newton
does exist, they are exceedingly rare. In real life, even brilliant people are just more
effective and creative when working with others. Teamwork skills hence are
becoming indispensable for a person to accomplish life achievements. Acquiring
efficient teamwork skills, however, is an undoubtedly strenuous process which is
obstructed by numerous obstacles. This research is conducted with the target of
figuring out problems and difficulties to which fourth-year Students in Faculty of
English Language Teacher Education (FELTE) at University of Languages and
International Studies (ULIS) have confronted when working in a team and
thenceforth proposing corresponding solutions. In great detail, the research is
undertaken based on the ground of three main reasons.

The first reason is determined to be the fact that the prerequisite for working in a
team does increase currently, not only among academic milieu but also in a social
environment because teamwork has been recognized to be the great solution to
accomplish mutual tasks. Teamwork may happen roughly in every single activity,
from as simple as cooking to as complicated as doing an intellectual research, all of
which highlight the significance of attaining teamwork skills to succeed. This leads
to the necessity to find out difficulties in working in a team and corresponding
measures to increase the level of proficiency regarding teamwork among the
population.
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Secondly, the research is conducted due to the obligation of working in a team
given in undergraduate curriculum. It is currently witnessing the popularity of
teamwork becoming a compulsory task in relatively any intellectual courses.
Students are required to work in a group for mutual assignments on an excessively
regular basis. A substantial number of students are detected to suffer from
teamwork failures due to the shortage of teamwork skills such as leadership skills,
communication skills, or coordination skills. To help ULIS students in specific and
undergraduate students in general acquire efficient teamwork competencies to
enhance academic performance, this research will locate underlying problems
causing disruption and obstacles on teamwork as well as corresponding suggestions
to assist them on utilizing teamwork in many upper-level courses.
The final reason why researchers chose this subject matter is that its results can be
in the long term used to optimize one’s teamwork skills in further professional
careers. Everyone in the workforce works as a team member at some points in their
career (Lawler, Mohrman, Cohen, & Ledford, 1998; Nielsen, Sundstrom, &
Halfhill, 2005). Teamwork plays an even more important role in workplaces than it
does in schools as from small startups to large corporations, teamwork decreases
burnout and increases company's overall productivity. There observes a high

possibility of the fact that a small lack of teamwork skills in professional
workplaces can lead to extremely serious consequences. Hence, to properly acquire
teamwork skills, this research will be carried out to provide sufficient knowledge
and solving methods to teamwork problems to prevent unexpected consequences in
professional careers.
In brief, the increasing demand for teamwork in life, in academic performance and
in professional careers are regarded as three major rationales stimulating the
authors to choose the research title; and surmounting difficulties as well as feasible

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solutions for FELTE students at ULIS in particular and graduates in general to
facilitate teamwork competence in any environment is mandatory.

1.2. Aims of the study
Several researches have been carried out on the concept of teamwork. This research
work is not a right derivation from all other works as it focuses on the fourth-year
students in FELTE of ULIS to figure out and examine several specific objectives.
The research is momentous to identify some background teamwork-related
information, which enables the authors to grasp considerable knowledge and even
profound understanding of functioning in a team.
Secondly, the research will reveal the students’ attitude towards working in a team
and reckoning their teamwork efficiency
Last but not least, the impacts of working in team among the last year student at
FELTE of ULIS especially on negative aspects will be clarified. In other words, the
study is to scrutinize underlying problems that FELTE fourth-year students have
confronted on a frequent basis and to propose certain excellent suggestions.
Due to these prime objectives, hopefully, the researchers would like to provide a
more comprehensive view of teamwork, prevailing issues and feasible solutions in

particular in order to encourage teamwork efficiently, and increase academic
performance as well as practical soft skills for life.

1.3. Scope of the study
Due to the lack of time to collect the adequate data and in-depth knowledge of the
objects on a large scale, the research is conducted on the range of 100 FELTE
students from ULIS in the academic year 2014 - 2018.
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This scope is chosen based on the ground that the population is identified as lastyear undergraduates who have four-year experiences in working in groups, hence
they possess a deeper understanding about teamwork issues more than the first,
second and third-year students. The survey results will be captured accurately and
reliably for data analysis.
Moreover, the final-year students are potential members of the upcoming labor
forces so enhancing teamwork skills is one of the most critical competencies in
their preference to improve and be qualified to the professional career afterward.
Accordingly, these are the objects that need to be surveyed, interviewed and
investigated so that the paper gives an overview of experiences, benefits,
challenges and solutions about the most effective teamwork.
Due to these two core reasons, the fourth-year FELTE students at ULIS are utterly
promising participants for this subject matter.

1.4. Methods of the study
The research will be defined and analyzed by the method of quantitative in which
the data is gathered using structured research instruments to rapidly reach the
research aims.
Basically, quantitative research is the systematic empirical investigation of
observable phenomena via objective statistical, mathematical or computational
techniques. It is to develop and employ mathematical models, theories, and

hypotheses pertaining to phenomena. Quantitative research is used to test
hypotheses in experiments because of its ability to measure data using
statistics in a fast and precise way. Moreover, analyzing the data with the
assistance of automatic and precise IT systems will yield unbiased results that can
wholly generalize and describe a population which is too large to observe directly.
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A questionnaire was designed to find out students’ perspectives on teamwork, all
their comments and suggestions were noted and assessed. The questionnaire was
put online and e-mailed to all the current final-year FELTE students in February
2018. Approximately two minutes is calculated to be enough for participants to
complete the survey. The fact that all students were encouraged to answer the
questionnaire online is highly convenient and preferable.
Due to the limited time and inadequate facilities, the authors choose the
quantitative method to carry out their survey, which makes the results more
objective and valid. Hopefully, the accurate and comprehensive data will be
acquired, which encourages the researchers to in-depth analyze the information,
and then encounter as well as surmount grave difficulties faced by all fourth-year
FELTE students at ULIS, VNU in particular and all graduates.

1.5. Design of the study
This research covers five chapters with the main following content:
Chapter 1: Introduction: The study’s rationale, aims of the study, the scope of the
study, method of the study and design of the study will be covered.
Chapter 2: Literature Review: The authors will parade both basic and some
comprehensive knowledge and theories related to teamwork activity such as its
definition, how it is categorized, teamwork’s critical significance, its benefits to
individuals and groups, especially common difficulties arising in team and
teamwork related studies by other authors in numerous aspects.

Chapter 3: Methodology: Information of participants, data collection instruments
and data collection procedures will be clarified.
Chapter 4: Data analysis: The results of the data analysis are presented.
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Chapter 5: Findings and Recommendation: Both researchers’ findings related
to students’ difficulties on teamwork as well as resolutions for these issues are
about to the highlighted. And even recommendations for further studies will be
shown so as to suggest more possible researchers in the future.

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CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW
Acquiring an indeed comprehensive grasp of the significance of teamwork, its
benefits and difficulties will create favorable conditions for researchers to
contemplate, analyze and recommend some feasible solutions for teamwork
associated issues. Not least in importance, related studies by other authors are
below presented to figure out what have and have not been done successfully as
well as show the vital prerequisite of this subject matter.

2.1. Definition of Teamwork
Over the years, abundant attempts have been made to define “teamwork”
(Hackman 1987; Katzenbach and Smith 1993; Robbins and Finley, 1995). At
different times and in distinct settings, various terms such as “teams”, “groups” and
“work units” have been used to describe this form of work organization (Benders
and Van Hootegem, 1999).
A “team” is a formal group of members who interact at a high level and work
together intensely to achieve a common group goal. Teams are considered to be

effective when they draw on the abilities and experiences of their members to
accomplish things that could not be achieved by individuals working separately or
by other kinds of working group (Jones et al, 2008). In other words, teams are
especially appropriate for conducting tasks that are high in complexity and have
many interdependent subtasks. A team is a place gathering those having either
same targets or needs. Alternatively, a team normally has members with
complementary skills and generates synergy through a coordinated effort which
allows each member to maximize his or her strengths and minimize his or her
weaknesses.

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Numerous terminologies and explanations to express the meaning of “teamwork”
are available; however, they are in general relatively equivalent. According to
Business Dictionary, “teamwork” is the process of working collaboratively with a
group of people to achieve a mutual goal. “Teamwork” is either defined by Scarnati
(2001) “as a cooperative process that allows ordinary people to achieve
extraordinary results”. Teamwork replies upon individuals working together in a
cooperative environment to achieve common team goals through sharing
knowledge and skills. "Two are better than one because they have a good reward
for their hard work. For if one of them should fall, the other one can raise his
partner up. But how will it be with just the one who falls when there is not another
to raise him up?" (Ecclesiastes 4:9-10, KJV). This implies that teamwork can
accomplish what the individual cannot do on his or her own and members in a team
will try to cooperate, using their individual skills and providing constructive
feedback, despite any personal conflict between individuals.
A lot of researches have been carried out on the concept of teamwork. This
research is not of any deviation from all other works that have been carried out on
the concept. In this study, the researchers try to ascertain the difficulties and the

solutions of working in a team among the final-year ULIS students in particular and
the upcoming graduates in general.

2.2. Types of Teamwork
Teamwork development has witnessed a dramatic growth in all types of
organizations. Successful outcomes and ventures of organizations depend on the
cooperative nature of many teams. According to Michel (2014), there are four basic
types of teamwork including informal teams, traditional teams, self‐directed (self‐
managed) teams and virtual teams which are commonly used to complete mutual
assignments or acquire achievements.
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2.2.1. Informal team

Picture 1: Informal team
Source: Group discussion, Reference for business, 2013

Informal teams or groups emerge whenever people come together and interact
regularly (Hitesh Basin, 2015). There are also no leaders, no rules in groups that
arise to create an avenue for interaction; relationships are what bind and guide
them. Casual interactions in such an organization can be formed anywhere, anytime
and be disbanded without consulting the management. One example of an informal
team is a group of co-workers who meet informally over breaks to discuss
problems about their work environment. Though this type of teamwork is formed
without a formal structure, it can be extremely effective because team members are
dedicated to sharing a common opinion.
2.2.2. Traditional team

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Picture 2: Traditional team
Source: Working conditions in Norway, New York Times, 2009

Traditional teams are formed with a specific goal in mind or work process.
Traditional work teams, which are highly structured, also known as conventional or
collocated teams, consist of individuals working in physical proximity. Teamwork
can be difficult to establish within a traditional team without the identification of a
common purpose to which all members can agree and commit.
2.2.3. Self‐directed team
Geoff Colvil (2012) defined self-directed team or self‐managed team as a team in
which there is no manager nor authority figure, so it is up to members to determine
rules and expectations, to solve problems when they arise, and to bare shared
responsibility for the results. These teams are provided with a goal by the
organization, and then carry out the project as well as determine how to achieve the
goal. However, team members have great freedom in determining what the team
does, provided that they are obliged meet quality standards.
2.2.4. Virtual team

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Picture 3: Virtual team
Source: Working as a Virtual team, New York Times, 2014

Powell, Piccoli and Ives (2010) stated the definition of a virtual team “as groups of
geographically, organizationally and/or time dispersed workers brought together
by information and telecommunication technologies to accomplish one or more
organizational tasks”. Generally, the evolution of technology to include software

and multimedia options that encourage organizations to expand over greater
geographic distances has also led to a rise in the use of virtual teams. Collaborative
software and conferencing systems have improved the ability for employees to
meet, conduct business, share documents, and make decisions without ever being in
the same location. Issues regularly arise with this type of teamwork due to the lack
of auditory clues or facial; participants must be taken at their word, even when
video-conferencing tools are used.

2.3. The Importance of Teamwork
“Coming together is a beginning. Keeping together is progress. Working together
is a success.” The above proverb by Henry Ford can very well highlight the
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importance of working together in teams. The ability to work in teams is one of the
most vital soft skills that often taught in universities to be applied in the business
world as well as required in professional life.
Nowadays, teamwork is an essential element of the society and plays an important
role in assessing one’s ability in various kinds of career. Teamwork is not only
reflected in a team's success, but also in individual growth. According to Taylorist
model, in current times there has been growing emphasis on tertiary education that
students should develop professional skills as a part of their education. Skills such
as problem-solving, communication, collaboration, interpersonal skills, social skills
and time management are actively being targeted by prospective employers as an
essential requirement for employability, especially in a team environment. Of these,
employment authorities consistently mention collaboration and teamwork as being
a critical skill, essential in almost all working environments (Taylorist 2003).
Moreover, teamwork is the concept of people working together cooperatively, as in
sales team, sports team etc. It has also become so valued that many large
corporations have developed specific tests to measure potential employee’s

teamwork ability. Hence, it has become an important goal in most workplaces, the
belief is that teamwork gives employees a sense of ownership and encourages
cooperation (Adeleke, 2008). Gardner and Korth (1998) asserted, “To remain
innovative and competitive, businesses are looking for employees who can work
and learn effectively in team” (p. 1). Thus, understanding the impact of teamwork
on performance is important because teamwork is viewed by some researchers as
one of the key driving force for improving a firm’s performance (Jones et al, 2008).
Therefore, Teamwork can be very useful and important to organizations as they can
complete critical tasks. Teams are also important and can perform at higher levels
than typical workgroups (See, e.g., Majchrzak & Wang, 1996; Mulvey, Veiga &
Elsass, 1996). This higher performance level is the result of a greater synergy
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resulting from collaboration and jointly produced outputs rather than a pooling of
individual outputs (Katz, 1997). The more informal environment within which
team members work, and which also allows communities of practice to develop
resulting in on-going learning and creative applications, enhances the vitality of
teams.

2.4. Benefits of Teamwork
It is none of the coincidence that teamwork is increasingly becoming a favorable
method to accomplish mutual assignments. One of the reasons explaining its
popularity is that teamwork brings a tremendous number of benefits for achievers.
Benefits of teamwork are eventually defined by some of the most famous theorists
in this field.
Ingram and other theorists manifestly stated overwhelming advantages of working
in a team in their primary research named “A systems model of effective
teamwork” in 1997 including four main constituents: increasing commitment and
motivation, improving quantitative and qualitative communication, enhancing the

ability to learn from the others, and raising sense of organizational and personal
satisfaction. Those constructive characteristics are mentioned as consequence of
introducing teamwork method in the workplace (Sven Rosenhauer, 2005) and are
exclusively appreciated in the professionally modern world.
Besides those above skills, Duncan Ian Brown also declared the benefits of
teamwork in the “Team-based reward plans” (1995) that teamwork anticipates
positive results on not only the individual performance but also organizational
objectives. He further gave explanations for the proclamation that teamwork
gradually reinforces each member’s soft skills in the route of pursuing after one

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ultimate goal of the group and the progress ends up “killing two birds with one
stone”.
In addition to those famous theories, there are other statements about benefits of
teamwork from other theorists which are also essential to be taken into
consideration. Brian Beal (2003) added an advantage of teamwork regarding
financial and economic concerns: “It helps enhance the productivity of a company
and helps them gain more profit”. Additionally, teamwork poses encouraging
impacts on social relationship and behavior to help handle members with low trust
syndrome (Jin, 1993).

2.5. Difficulties arising in Teamwork
Regardless of considerable benefits to not only individuals but also groups,
suffering from a variety of problems inhibiting effective teamwork is inevitable
with every team member. It is in fact regardless of whoever cooperators are –
closer friends or strangers, several common issues are still imminent.
First and foremost, poor communication plagues teamwork. And without proper
communication at workplaces, we tend to get what we least asked for: mistakes,

conflicts,

poor

relationships

(Harvard

Business

Review,

2009).

Poor

communication within a team can cause misunderstandings that lead to internal
conflict. A team that spends its time misinterpreting information and creating
conflicts is not able to be a productive work unit (Lam, 2016). Also, disputes and
arguments about personal or work-related issues can inhibit teamwork and hurt
productivity (Harvard Business Review, 2009). Therefore, poor communication is
one of the most severe problems that should be deal with urgently and promptly to
create a friendly and stimulating environment fostering team member to contribute,
develop and consummate the ambitious goals.
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The second issue emerging on teamwork should be the ineffective leadership
(Harvard Business Review, 2009). Leaders serve as the backbone of teams, from
their roles in specifying goals and setting up work sessions and meetings to keeping

an eye on goal advancement. Many kinds of bad leaders are available. They are
unable to give a clear goal for the team, or incapable of an inspiring team,
motivating them, creating a healthy competitive environment and not a good role
model due to unqualified competences. And Lipman (2005) suggested that the
toxic leaders will also use charismatic tendencies to manipulate, isolate, and
ostracize his or her followers. This is where teamwork is impacted. When a
negative or destructive leader is around, followers will either look to move away
from that leader or they will jump on the negative leader’s bandwagon (Lam,
2016). When this happens, a division occurs within the team. In some cases, the
leader intentionally seeks to create turmoil in the team. Hence, bad leader is really a
grave risk to teamwork.
Last but not least, irresponsibility is also one of the main reasons leading to the
ineffective teamwork (Harvard Business Review, 2009). Contrary to popular belief,
teamwork is not just a group progress, it's a personal responsibility and skill
(M.Avery, 2014). Responsibilities are the specific tasks or duties that members are
expected to complete as a function of their roles. They are specific activities or
obligations for which they are held when they assume or are assigned to a role on a
project or team. However, many team members ignore tasks and miss deadlines.
But they do not forget that they are working in a team, their irresponsibility will not
only pose bad impacts on their career, but also the others’ and the whole team.
Therefore, irresponsibility should also be taken into more consideration.
In brief, defective communication, ineffective leadership and irresponsibility are
three most predominant aspects resulting in disappointing performances of
teamwork.
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2.6. Related studies
Teamwork is a collaborative effort by members of a group working together to
achieve common goals. When teamwork breaks down, members of the group find

it difficult to complete tasks effectively and often struggle with no clear objective.
When a team operates like a well-oiled machine, it catapults its members ahead of
the competition as a result of its cohesive nature (Sophia Cross, 2015). In other
words, working in a team has not only benefits but also shortcomings, there have
been many related pieces of research on the aspect.
In the thesis on “The Disadvantages of Teamwork in the Workplace”, Chris Joseph
(2014) revealed four disadvantages of working in groups in the workplace are
Unequal Participation, Longer Process, Limiting Creativity and Inherent Conflict.
Chris Joseph mentioned that while teamwork does offer a variety of advantages,
there are also potential disadvantages people should be aware of when
implementing a team concept in workplaces. Besides, Rasel Jack (2015) looked at
both benefits and shortcomings of teamwork in her research named “Advantages
and Disadvantages of Teamwork” and eventually affirmed the importance of
teamwork since teamwork advantages outnumber disadvantages. In great detail,
advantages attained from working in a team include nine points: productivity, job
satisfaction, quality of work, acceptance of change, commitment to goal
achievement, low turnover downward, development of motivation, less cost and
time and Increases creativity and innovation whereas disadvantages include five
points: lack of competence, unwillingness of management, political involvement,
less training and not cooperative attitude. Moreover, Joseph Chris (2013) revealed
in his research “Seven Pros and Cons of Group Work” that working in teams, after
all, is part of a business environment and is an approach that companies’ use to
achieve certain goals or complete certain projects. He focused on four advantages
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of teamwork that people get: result in a common direction, more ideas are shared,
increased efficiency, accountability of weak areas. However, he also highlighted
three difficulties of working in a team: The case of the free-rider, loss of resources,
conflicts among team members. Another research gives readers deep understanding

and knowledge about teamwork is “The secret of teamwork” by Martine Haas &
Mark Mortensen (2016). The authors also recognized the limitations and
difficulties when working in a group: Indulging in the blame game when things go
wrong, unequal involvement and participation of different members, not
cooperative attitude and conflict among members in a team.

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CHAPTER 3: METHODOLOGY
After a broad literature review on the difficulties and the solutions of working in a
team, this chapter presents a descriptive-survey study conducted in order to
corroborate the literature review findings by concentrating on the situation at ULIS
(VNU) about this topic.
3.1. Participants
The target population of the research is fourth-year students studying Faculty of
English Language Teacher Education (FELTE) at University of Languages and
International Studies (ULIS). In a great detail, researchers will conduct a survey on
respondents being students of twenty classes in QH.2014 ranging from class E1 to
class E20. To be more precise, it is an unmitigated source of students who are
favorably regarded as potential and relevant informants. There are two below-listed
common characteristics of the population to declare to be a preferably contributive
group to the success of the research. First of all, the final-year students who have at
least 4-year-experience in working in groups, they hence possess a subconscious
grasp of teamwork issues rather than the first, second and third-year students. In
addition, since there covers a wide range of specializations from pedagogy,
translation, interpreting to international economics in 20 classes, the scope of the
research is both large enough to distribute the survey and diverse enough to receive
answers from many aspects in order to certify the rational validity of the research.

3.2. Data collection instruments
3.2.1. Quantitative methods
Owing to the limitation in time and facilities, the authors choose the quantitative
method to carry out the research, which determined to reach more objective and
18


valid results. Furthermore, researchers are also able to collect original data for
wholly describing a population which is too large to observe directly.
The survey was all sent to objective respondents via the Internet, which was
designed to find out students’ perspectives on teamwork and its issues, all of their
comments and suggestions were noted and assessed. The questionnaire was put
online and e-mailed to all the current final-year FELTE students in February 2018
thanks to QH.2014 FELTE’s monitors and social network groups. The fact that the
online survey takes only two minutes to be completed is highly convenient and
preferable.
Moreover, a descriptive survey is considered to be more effective in depicting a
portrayal of overall characteristics such as students’ attitudes, their perspectives,
abilities, or knowledge of the issue. The expense is also a beneficial point for
carrying out a questionnaire online which is distinctively more economical than the
normal interview methodology.
For these justifications, the researchers finalized the quantitative method with a
questionnaire survey instrument to acquire accurate information and elicit from the
perceptions of the target population.

3.2.2. Survey questions
The researchers set out to assess the perception of FELTE fourth-year students at
ULIS in teamwork difficulties as well as recommendations. Our 17 questions are
categorized into three main parts including QH.2014 FELTE students’ attitudes
towards teamwork, their common problems in functioning as a team member, and

especially suggestions for group work challenges, which is easy-to-follow for both
students and researchers.

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