Shanghai University of Finance and Economics Zhejiang College
A Dissertation for
ENGLISH FOR DECISIONS-MAKERS: A COURSE IN MODERN MANAGEMENT

BASED ON CHAPTER 7 TEAMWORK&WORKGROUP DESIGN

Conversion From Group To Team ---A Teamwork Study of The ACCA Class

by Jason Chen

In early April of this year, Shanghai University of Finance and Economics Zhejiang College founds its own experimental class for the Association of Charted Certified Accountant (ACCA) courses, which initially comprises 39 students from 3 grades and 8 different classes. Due to their different origins, students have to gather at weekends to learn two courses for average 8 hours per day in order to catch up with the schedule of the delayed project. There are plenty of problems such as multiclass-students communication and uneven levels of English studying without mentioning the urgent schedule. Nevertheless, after half a year, there are 4 students passing both two courses and several students take single. This improvement owes much to the teamwork of the class. And I'd like to discuss about it as followings.

This class is a group rather than a team at the outset. Reasons can be concluded as:

1)Lack of Communication. Despite the fact those students study together at weekend, few of them come to the classroom which is premium for the class, making it difficult for them to develop a further relationship as classmates. It partly owes to the regulations that freshmen have to attend self-study of their own class in the evening, resulting in fewer chances to communicate.

2)Indefinite Goals. Many a student is just attracted by the reputation of the project and doesn't share a clear and common goal. As a result, instead of analyzing the problems when encountering them, some students just choose to quit at the second term.

3)Large Size. There are almost 40 students in the class at the beginning, which declares the difficulty to meet together and the squash in the classroom.

Thus, half of the students give up the course. Some lose their faith or they just have other business to be busy with. However, majority of the students who stay are also unknown about the future. A feeling of helpless arises when facing questions that they can't work out.

Before the test ,there is an simulation test which turns out to be not ideal. The future of the project’s not promising enough to been foreseen.

Meanwhile, the manager of the class realize the seriousness of the existing problems. So plenty measures have been taken.

Firstly, freshmen are permitted to study in the premium classroom instead of attending the self-study in the evening so as to create more chances for communication. Secondly students from different grades have been divided into several groups, which simplifies the information when a conference is called. Last but not least, a meeting that offers a chance for students to share their own experience whilst reviewing the course is held before the exam of the courses, which facilitate more discussion later on. As the goal is crystal clear as passing the test, most students devote themselves with extraordinary passion.

Teamwork gradually informs during the process. Students who are good at English offer the translation, and students who is familiar with economic and accounting knowledge explain the confusing points in questions. Some students gather frequent tested knowledge point whilst some students are responsible to conclude the general test point from each chapters.

So it's not surprising that there is an outstanding improvement in the test comparing with the simulated one. What's more, the class is transferring into a team. It's natural that the students spend more time together no matter in class or off class.

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In mid November, a second test has been launched for the students who haven’t pass single or both courses. And the results is as above and followings.

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It costs half a year for the class transfer from a group to a team. And it proves that a team works much more efficient than a group. So from the case, we learn that it's important to form a team intentionally. And I hope it displays a example for you to learn how great teamwork might be.

上海财经大学浙江学院08会计三班
陈 刚
2011年12月