Collaborators Needed: Predictors of Self-Assessed Teamwork Competence in Agricultural Faculty

Abstract

Despite an abundance of research in the past 20 years on the importance of teamwork in higher education, little data exists on what factors predict faculty self-evaluations of teamwork competence. This is important for leadership educators because as research on the science of team science has increased there has been a proliferation of different training programs for faculty in academia to improve collaboration, with little regard for what variables predict self-perceived teamwork skill. This study used a cross-sectional survey design to collect faculty self-evaluations of teamwork competence from a national sample of agricultural faculty. Regression analysis was used to determine what factors, identified as potentially important from prior research, predicted positive self-evaluations of teamwork competence. Results showed that discipline self-efficacy, feelings of impostorism, team participation, the presence of prior training, and gender were all significant predictors. The implications of these findings and avenues for future research for teamwork in higher education are discussed.