can i have some information about.....how group work is an
essential ingredient in Business Education.

team work??????????? - That was very well said. I find it hard to
believe that there is such a thing, namely team-work, as widely
published by all the managements world over. Come on, ask the guys who
actually do the stuff... ask the programmer... All success stories are
direct result of individual genius'. Although not everybody is a
genius, the day-to-day work that is done in the world of programming
is successful only when an indiviual puts his best in it. Team
formation delays everything, creates chaos.. a good fella has to
compensate for a bad fella - and thats not teamwork. he is doing it
either for fun because he likes doing it, or to save his own A or
plainly out of combination of irritation and sympathy. And dont you
say that in such a scnario, its bad management of resources et all...
Team work! No.... I would do it alone.... its just not an essential
ingredient... may be one if the ways to help stupid management guys
keep an eye on the employees.. and to give some breathing space for
those of us who just cant perform!

I mostly agree with kik but some projects are far too complex to be
handled by a single genius, so many teams are necessary and the
efforts of the teams need to be coordinated somewhat to avoid
duplication of little value, or perhaps worse conflicting conclusions.
 Ross Perot (the Presidential candidate) developed a management
philosophy that is often studied as unique, as he made big bucks in
computer application consulting. Each new hire was assigned to an
existing working team. The teams were given the objectives/typically
the customer's requests and contract. Supervision outside the team was
rare unless the team leader requested outside opinions. Occasionally
the new hire became the natural team leader almost immediately.
Effective teams were not hassled. Ineffective teams were interviewed
individually and typically some members were shuffled to different
teams. Employees who had been on several consecutive
unsuccessful/marginal teams were asked to find employment elsewhere. 
Neil

Colin --

Check the literature on Total Quality Management (TQM).  It's all
about creating feedback loops between functional disciplines to
improve the output.

Best regards,

Omnivorous-GA