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Influence of national and engineering culture on team role selection

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Abstract

Engineering education is an emerging field of research. Due to its applied nature, recent theoretical developments have been followed by empirical evidence and interdisciplinary research. The present study attempted to describe the team roles assumed by members of project teams composed of young engineering students. The study was conducted in Pakistan by using the Belbin Team Role Self Perception Inventory. It was found that young Pakistani engineers assumed the roles of implementer, coordinator, shaper and team worker. This study attempts to understand role choices through the framework of national cultural dimensions proposed by Hofstede and engineering education culture offered by Godfrey and Parker. The study strongly recommends that engineering curriculum should incorporate activities which could foster creativity among engineers. Moreover, engineering students should be motivated to innovate through collaboration in a problem and project based environment, which is seriously lacking in engineering education of Pakistan.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Faculty of Management and Human Resource Development, Universiti Teknologi Malaysia, 81310, Skudai, Johor, Malaysia

    Ibn-e-Hassan, Noraini Abu Talib & Muhammad Jawad Iqbal

  2. Process Systems Engineering Centre (PROSPECT), Faculty of Chemical Engineering, Universiti Teknologi Malaysia, 81310, Skudai, Johor, Malaysia

    Amjad Riaz

  3. Department of Chemical Engineering, COMSATS Institute of Information Technology, Lahore, Pakistan

    Amjad Riaz

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  1. Ibn-e-Hassan
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  2. Noraini Abu Talib
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  3. Amjad Riaz
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  4. Muhammad Jawad Iqbal
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Correspondence to Ibn-e-Hassan.

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Ibn-e-Hassan, Talib, N.A., Riaz, A. et al. Influence of national and engineering culture on team role selection. Int J Technol Des Educ 24, 91–105 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10798-013-9242-z

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