Managing cultural diversity in teams is a pressing challenge given the preponderance of teamwork as a tool to manage work in organisations whose workforces are increasingly becoming culturally diverse. The aim of this paper is to present a conceptual framework that may guide future research that focuses on managing cultural diversity in student teams. The discussion confirms that enhancing student satisfaction with the experience of working in culturally diverse teams is related to the development of an ‘embedding context’ that promotes diversity values and benefits for both the individual and the individual working in a team. The paper extends previous contributions using a teaching- research nexus: an ongoing research project into staff and student attitudes and experiences of teamwork combined with the development of teaching resources aimed at integrating teamwork into the curriculum. The conceptual framework presented here is reflected in the HERDSA publication Managing Student Teams.

Keywords: cultural diversity; student teams; teaching-research nexus.