Team Composition and Team Performance: Achieving Higher Quality Results in an International Higher Education Environment

This study was piloted over a period of three years (2008-2011) while teaching Project Management courses to international students at Mikkeli University of Applied Sciences, Finland - aiming to explore the possibility to apply the Belbin’s theory on building successful managerial teams in a multicultural higher education environment – in order to achieve better quality results. The objective of the study was multifold: (i) to explore the possibility to apply the theory in an international higher education environment; (ii) to assess the students’ satisfaction of working in teams built according to different criteria; (iii) to assess the quality of the students’ performance while working in teams; (iv) to check if there is any relationship between the quality of the performance and the way of building the team. The results are positive overall: the theory is applicable in the above conditions; students’ satisfaction depends on the way the team is built; building the teams according to the theory of team members’ roles leads to better quality performance. The results of the study are equally important for higher education professors and managers, aiming at improving the quality of the higher education process. The international dimension is a measure of innovative, entrepreneurial university.