How can course design facilitate the development of teamwork skills for diligent students?

Stakeholders emphasise that accounting graduates need excellent teamwork skills. Group work activities, included in the academic programme to develop teamwork skills, often lead to 'free-riding' by some students and disillusionment on the part of diligent students. Diligent students often prefer to work alone and could lack teamwork skills as a result. The aim of this study was to evaluate how course design can facilitate the development of teamwork skills for diligent students with negative perceptions on group work. Detailed perception data on how a certain group work activity affected diligent students' teamwork skills were collected via in-depth interviews. Themes identified through thematic analysis were compared to existing literature to construct recommendations on structuring group work activities for diligent students. The recommendations indicate that a challenging assignment conducted by a small group of students, selected on some form of commonality, over a substantial period, with limited lecturer instructions, incorporating both online and in-person components, without formal peer assessment, is best suited to foster the trust that is essential in teamwork and leads to open communication and ultimately collaboration. Educators could employ these recommendations when designing group work activities, especially when they note negative perceptions regarding group work in diligent students.