Professional training plans play a pivotal role in higher education institutions, as they significantly impact employability, graduate performance, and meeting labour market demands. These aspects serve as crucial indicators in the selection processes for prospective candidates in higher education institutions and in accrediting the quality of…

Firms and institutions of higher education alike emphasize the value of teamwork in increasing organizational performance. In this empirical study, the role of social ties on team performance is examined. The results indicate that there is an inverted-U relationship between average number of friends in a team and team performance, and that this…

This research is motivated by the importance of social skills for elementary school students. Social skills are abilities that must be possessed by every individual to function well in their social environment. Social skills must be instilled through the stages of learning and habituation. One of the approaches to instill social skills is through…

Purpose: For professional sustainability work, graduates need to be able to work in teams and collaborate with stakeholders; in other words, they need to have developed interpersonal competence. There is growing evidence that project-based sustainability courses facilitate interpersonal competence development. However, research so far has focused…

We sought to describe how prospective educators' choices of collaborative, cooperative, or individualistic interactions with group members and their willingness to apply unstructured effort into group functioning explained their levels of stress and self-evaluations of cooperative skills. Students (n=149) working in intact cooperative groups…

This article describes an action research (AR) project for designing and implementing a structured mentoring programme in a Spanish university. A student affairs unit, a team of researchers, faculty-mentors and student-protégés worked together on three cycles of AR. The result is a programmatic mentoring programme for the development of…

The Widget design task is an in-class, experiential exercise that affords students the opportunity to develop interpersonal skills in group negotiation. Students engage in new product design in committees of two dyads where one dyad represents Consumer Research and the other represents Strategic Management. Task information creates different…

Soft skills are becoming increasingly important and will be critical for success in the Information Systems profession. Employers complain about a lack in soft skills among graduates from tertiary education institutions. No agreement exists about what these skills actually are, which are of importance, and how acquiring these soft skills should be…

Successful team outcomes frequently--if not always--rely upon proven techniques for managing diverse styles and strengths. In this article, the authors describe the Diversity Card Game and the benefits it offers for students and instructors. Building teams using Diversity gives students the knowledge to manage clashes that might otherwise create…

This action research project was designed to have the majority of middle school students engage in healthy relationships with their peers and teachers as the data suggested the need for improved interactions with others. Students contributed to team building lessons; implemented school community service learning projects; participated in an…

Purpose: This paper seeks to investigate the potential role of emotional intelligence (EI) abilities within learning in teams. The research focuses on examining how EI abilities are enacted within team contexts and how these are associated with critical reflection and team processes associated with learning. Design/methodology/approach: A…

The "Life Skills and Leadership Manual" is designed to be used by Peace Corps Volunteers and their counterparts who work with youth worldwide to develop the knowledge, skills, and attitudes integral to three Youth in Development sector competencies: (1) Support healthy lifestyles and prepare youth for family life; (2) Prepare youth for…

Expert facilitators combine both diagnostic and intervention skills in eight domains: group development, goals, roles, communication, meeting management, decision making, problem solving, and conflict management. Most people can develop group facilitation skills. (SK)

After pointing out that the concept of competition lies at the roots of our economic system, the author points out that competition is not always a good thing. (Editor)

Camp, with its community living focus, presents a constant source of potential conflicts and offers an ideal environment to help campers develop their problem-solving skills. Steps in social problem solving are listed, and an example of problem-solving skills in action is offered. Counselors can discuss conflicts with campers and ask for group…