There is power in the top management team: team based learning and immediate feedback assessment in strategic management

When looking at the creation of strategy in business, we usually find that it is a collaboration of skills and practice that enables the business to develop effective strategic plans. Yet so often in the teaching context, we hear that students, particularly in their final year of undergraduate studies, resist summative assessment based on groups or teams. For strategic management modules, this provides a dilemma. The essence of the subject requires students going beyond theory in to practice, and the practice of strategy and the constructs of problem solving that this brings in industry is often reliant on the team, and in particular the top management team. This
paper explores the individual’s performance against that of the team. It uses a team based learning approach, with immediate feedback assessment technique to open discussions around individual and team performance within the context of strategic management knowledge and understanding. It discusses the team context as something that improves understanding of the subject material, and that receiving real-time immediate feedback enhances learning, whilst giving the opportunity to clarify any misconceptions of the underpinning subject matter via team discussions.