GRA 2427 Building and Leading Effective Teams: Contemporary Issues
GRA 2427 Building and Leading Effective Teams: Contemporary Issues
Organizations increasingly rely on teams to accomplish tasks, and several factors may affect teams’ effectiveness. Yet, organizations’ approach to building and leading effective teams is not always evidence-based nor consistent with contemporary research. It often fails to account for the increased uncertainty and volatility of the environment in which teams operate, as well as for the changing nature of teams, which are increasingly becoming, in part or in full, virtual and multicultural, among other things. This course aims to provide students with up-to-date and relevant knowledge and skills to build and lead effective teams. It tackles contemporary issues and discusses contemporary theories and research rather than classical theories and research. As part of the course, students will work extensively in teams. They will be asked to solve problems in teams, and critically discuss theories, research, and practical cases in teams.
The candidate
- Has advanced knowledge of contemporary issues associated with team effectiveness, including central contemporary theories and research associated with team effectiveness.
- Has advanced knowledge on how to work effectively in a team, as demonstrated by team exercises/activities, case studies, and presentations throughout the course.
The candidate
- Can recognize and identify critical factors influencing team effectiveness, and use relevant theories and research to explain team effectiveness in contemporary settings.
- Can critically reflect on theories and research explaining team effectiveness in contemporary settings.
- Can present and discuss theories and research about team effectiveness in contemporary settings.
By the end of the course, students should have acquired knowledge and gained experience on how to best build and develop contemporary teams. They should be able to critically reflect on the issues faced by contemporary teams and on the strategies that can help deal with these issues.
- Central theories and research for understanding team functioning in contemporary settings
- Central theories and research for understanding team development in contemporary settings
- Central theories and research for understanding leadership in contemporary teams
- Central theories and research for understanding virtual teams
- Central theories and research for understanding multicultural teams
The course is structured as a combination of lectures, team exercises/activities and case studies, team presentations and class discussions. Students will be ask to work extensively in teams. The course requires a substantial amount of preparation by the students and active involvement in the teams throughout the entire semester.
Students are required to attend the first day of class or inform the instructor in advance about their absence.
Please note that while attendance is not compulsory in all courses, it is the student’s own responsibility to obtain any information provided in class.
This is a course with continuous assessment (several exam components) and one final exam code. Each exam component is graded by using points on a scale from 0-100. The components will be weighted together according to the information in the course description in order to calculate the final letter grade for the examination code (course). Students who fail to participate in one/some/all exam elements will get a lower grade or may fail the course. You will find detailed information about the point system and the cut off points with reference to the letter grades when the course starts.
At resit, all exam components must, as a main rule, be retaken during next scheduled course.
All courses in the Masters programme will assume that students have fulfilled the admission requirements for the programme. In addition, courses in second, third and/or fourth semester can have spesific prerequisites and will assume that students have followed normal study progression. For double degree and exchange students, please note that equivalent courses are accepted.
Covid-19
Due to the Covid-19 pandemic, there may be deviations in teaching and learning activities as well as exams, compared with what is described in this course description.
Teaching
Information about what is taught on campus and other digital forms will be presented with the lecture plan before the start of the course each semester.
GRA 2205 Organisational Behaviour or equivalent
| Assessments |
|---|
Exam category: Activity Form of assessment: Class participation Weight: 40 Grouping: Group (2 - 3) Exam code: GRA 24271 Grading scale: Point scale leading to ECTS letter grade Resit: All components must, as a main rule, be retaken during next scheduled course |
Exam category: Submission Form of assessment: Written submission Invigilation Weight: 60 Grouping: Individual Support materials:
Duration: 3 Hour(s) Comment: Written examination under supervision. Exam code: GRA 24271 Grading scale: Point scale leading to ECTS letter grade Resit: All components must, as a main rule, be retaken during next scheduled course |
| Activity | Duration | Comment |
|---|---|---|
Teaching | 36 Hour(s) | |
Student's own work with learning resources | 124 Hour(s) |
A course of 1 ECTS credit corresponds to a workload of 26-30 hours. Therefore a course of 6 ECTS credits corresponds to a workload of at least 160 hours.