Measurements of Intercultural Teamwork Competence and Its Impact on Design Students’ Competitive Advantages

Abstract

Main issue: This article aims to measure intercultural teamwork competence and assess its impact on career competitive advantages for design students in order to determine how effective and competitive team members are in culturally diverse settings. Sampling: there were 51 participants (48 effective) in pretesting and 405 (338 effective) in formal testing. Participants were students from three colleges of design in Zhejiang Province of China. Statistical tool: this study used the on-line platform of wenjuanxing (wjx.cn) for data collection and SPSS software for data analysis. Methods: data were collected through on-line questionnaires, and then processed through factor analysis, t-test, and stepwise regression. Results: (1) TWC-CQ scale was formed to measure intercultural teamwork competence; (2) there were no statistically significant differences among participating design students (junior and senior) in intercultural teamwork competencies; (3) key competitive advantage = 0.347 × T-behavioral CQ + 0.232 × T-metacognitive CQ + 0.172 × T-motivational CQ + 0.124 × T-cognitive CQ. Conclusions: intercultural teamwork competence and its positive impact on design students’ competitive advantages could be measured. Implications: theoretical and practical implications were summed up for future studies.

Exploring an Interdisciplinary Curriculum in Product and Media Design Education: Knowledge Innovation and Competency Development

“…In Taiwan's design education, the traditional approach of teachers developing students' professional competence through the training process of individual courses has also reached a bottleneck and given rise to many practical studies on design education innovation and industry-academia collaboration [7][8][9][10][11]. This situation is mainly due to rapid changes in the design industry over the past two decades [2].…”

“…This situation is mainly due to rapid changes in the design industry over the past two decades [2]. It has resulted in the requirements for designers' professional competency becoming more complex and varied, such as interdisciplinary abilities, social skills [7], team cohesion [11], leadership [12], and entrepreneurship [10]. These competencies are highlighted in the context of sustainable development in traditional handcrafts through a design thinking-based study [2].…”

“…Team cohesion is crucial in design projects that involve collaboration with colleagues from various disciplines. Designers must work cohesively within teams, leveraging their expertise, and effectively co-ordinating efforts to achieve shared goals [11]. Leadership skills enable designers to take charge and guide design projects to success.…”

“…In comparison, the articles mentioned above are closely related to the transformative competencies discussed in the OECD Learning Compass 2030 report [1]. These studies explore various aspects of professional competencies in design, such as innovation competency [7], intercultural teamwork competency [11], leadership competence [12], and entrepreneurship [10], which align with the transformative competencies emphasized in the report. These studies provide empirical evidence and practices for fostering transformative competencies in students, enabling them to address future challenges and contribute to sustainable development [2].…”

Challenges in Teamwork: International Business Students’ Perspective

“…Prevailing literature posits that teamwork has become a useful pedagogical method to influence student learning [12] highlighting that there are numerous potential benefits of teamwork in different educational contexts [13] as well as in various industrial contexts [13,14]. However, research, see for example [15], also highlights several challenges and difficulties students face while participating in teamwork activities.…”