Exploring the paradoxes and tensions encountered by business faculty teaching teamwork in a changing academic environment

Abstract

ABSTRACT The contemporary university is now characterised as a complex working environment wherein faculty must negotiate increasing demands for accountability, performativity, and productivity. A multiplicity of expectations adds to this complexity. Specifically, expectations set by employers in developing ‘work-ready’ graduates have compelled faculty to negotiate interdependent contradictions that focus on developing employability skills alongside technical skills. This qualitative study reports on the lived experiences of 30 business school teaching faculty, negotiating tensions as they relate to the teaching of one type of employability skill: teamwork. Paradox theory is appropriated to better understand how faculty perceive their professional environment and practices related to teamwork pedagogy. The findings reveal that faculty navigate the performing/learning, performing/organising and performing/belonging paradoxes of teamwork pedagogy by passively suppressing tensions or through proactive acceptance strategies.