5. Background questionnaire

The Background Questionnaire presents an opportunity to collect information about demographic, social, and economic factors that affect teamwork. Such information should be of interest to policymakers and educators from countries participating in ALL because it will provide information on the determinants of teamwork. Results can be used for structuring policy and/or educational programs to improve the levels of teamwork in the workforce and elsewhere.

Based on what is currently known about teamwork and our approach to measuring teamwork in ALL, we hypothesize that several background variables may have an effect on a respondent's knowledge of team skills, and his or her belief in the importance of teamwork and collective orientation. Specifically, past experience in teams, whether or not the respondent has received formal or informal team training, and demographic variables like respondent age, gender, economic status, and educational level may have an effect. Each of these is briefly discussed in some detail below.

5.1 Experience in teams

The nature and extent of respondents' experiences in teams are likely to significantly affect their attitudes toward teamwork and knowledge of what to do in teams. In addition to including questions about respondents' experiences in teams in the background questionnaire, we developed a short team experience measure (see Appendix 1.5). This scale asks respondents to rate their past experiences in teams on a series of bipolar adjectives. An initial version of this scale was tested on the sample of business students described earlier (refer to item development for the team attitude scales for a detailed description of the sample). Results indicated that the scale was reasonably reliable (µ = .79).

5.2 Team training

Whether or not respondents have received formal or informal team training is likely to have a significant effect on both knowledge of teamwork skills and attitudes toward teamwork. Sufficient research exists to support the efficacy of team training for improving attitudes toward teamwork, increasing knowledge, and enhancing teamwork skills (see for example, Salas et al., 1995; Salas et al., 1999). Collecting information on whether or not ALL respondents have received team training and the nature of training content should prove useful to policymakers interested in improving teamwork skills in the workforce. Data collected through ALL could provide significant insight into specific training strategies that are effective in different countries.

5.3 Demographics

Demographic characteristics such as age, gender, economic status, and educational level may also affect respondent knowledge and attitudes toward teamwork. Little, if any, research on the effects of these variables currently exists. ALL could present an opportunity to assess whether or not knowledge of teamwork skills and attitudes toward teamwork vary as a function of these and other demographic characteristics.