Bruce Tuckman maintains that there are four stages of group development, forming, storming, norming, and performing. These stages are all essential and unavoidable in order for a group to mature, overcome challenges, find solutions, plan work, and produce effective results. (University of Washington, 2013)
Kongvongxay, M. & Chatillion, R. (2013). Tuckman’s Five Stages of Group Development. Retrieved from http://www.slideshare.net/perspectum/5-stages-of-group-development-norms-tuckman-16474067
Communication within a group in society today is a skill that can enhance the habits of a successful team. When individuals decided to work as a team, it is no longer about that one person it becomes about several individuals acting as one. Team members must fully understand the common goal of the group and also must understand their individual role as a team. Once each member realizes that the work they do individually still affect the group that is the first habit acquired towards a successful team. In additional habit for a successful team is by earning each team member’s trust will insure the communication and growth within the team. As well, focusing on how you communicate is a big part the growth of the team.
The first and most important is group development. Group development is something that every group must go through. It is easily explained by using Cog’s Ladder of group development, five stages of group development: Polite, why were here, bid for power, constructive, and Esprit. These stages outline the path that all groups go through to form their identity. The way your group develops can often determine your actions and your comparative status amongst the other group members. (notes)
Bormann E. G. & Bormann & N. C. (1996). Effective Small Group Communication (6th Edition). Edina, MN: Burgess Publishing.
Tuckman reviewed, in 1965, 50 articles that were dealing by the time with stages in development of groups. Tuckman´s purpose was to review this literature and through evaluation and extrapolation of the general concepts, be able to suggest and formulate a general model applicable to most of group development cases (Tuckman, 1965).
Groups were assigned by professor and consisted of diverse students with various backgrounds. Our first task was writing group contract which involved participation of all group members and required closer contact among students. Tuckman’s Group Development Stages model can be used to show how our group worked together, as our ‘4U’ team had gone through each stage. Example of the forming stage was the first meeting when all group members tried to be polite and asked questions, such as ‘what is major?’, ‘what is your GPA?’, we tried to be kind to each other and be cautious to avoid misunderstandings in the beginning of our work. However, everything changed when we received the task to write contract and our group entered second stage of the Tuckman’s model. We experimented and tried to analyze who is doing better at brainstorming, writing, proofreading, and managing tasks. Therefore, some secondary tension occurred as all group members argued about topic, goals and norms we should establish. Our group consisted of four members which made it difficult to pass to third stage of Tuckman’s model. There was a conflict about topic; we had two ideas involving water quality problem and meal-plan issue. Both topics were interesting and challenging, there was an equal distribution of voices among these topics and group members openly disagreed, competed for a status and tried to persuade that their ideas are more important. There was not norming stage as separate, as conflicts occurred all the time, statuses of group members were also constantly changing. Group norms were continually adjusted and changing from the forming to performing stage. For instance, one of the explicit norms was that everyone should be prepared to the meeting (establi...
Working with my group was exciting, frustrating, and challenging. We did struggle with communication in the beginning. For example, some of the group members were not happy with the ideas that were picked for our problem and they didn’t voice their opinions about it. Nothing gets solved until you express how you truly feel. So we were left with group members that were unhappy and the other group members didn’t have a clue why they were upset. It took for us to have multiple meetings for us to truly understand the best way to voice our opinions without causing any unwanted issues. In the end, our group accomplished a lot of obstacles but I can honestly say I had a great experience working with them.
The first chapter of “Working in Groups” focuses on group communication, the first aspect being the key elements of group communication (Engleberg and
Tuckman, B., & Jensen, M. (2010). Stages of small-group development revisited. Group Facilitation, (10), 43-48. Retrieved March 27, 2011, from ABI/INFORM Global.
Having now completed my group work task, I can look back and reflect upon the process that my group went thought it get to the presentation end point. Firstly my group had to form (Kottler, Englar-Carlson 2010 p.93). There are many theories on how groups come together and the stages they go though. Tuckman is a commonly used theories due to the simple nature of his five stage theory. Tuckman believes that in order for a group to form they must go through his five stages: forming, storming, norming and performing (Tuckman 1965 p.17). In 1977 along side Jensen Tuckman added mourning to his process.
In order to gain some purpose while working in a group, I know it can be challenging task to do because every group member is required to agree and cooperate. I am privileged to become a part of a group and completed our task successfully. Our group consists of 5 members and we experienced the stages of group development along with which different roles being considered. Our group formed with the common interest of competing and representing ourselves as competent and knowledgeable. The storming phase involved a trial being held to determine the capabilities of each other and positions were found to be disputed due to which we voted on leader of team. In the norming stage, roles of every group member have been stated and identified with the
Part I; Basic Elements of Group Process: An Overview is comprised of chapters 1-5. This section is obviously an overview of the various types of groups and discusses some general principles that can be applied in working with culturally diverse groups. Part I also covers some basic group leadership issues, ethical issues in group work, and the stages in the evolution of a group, from formation to termination and follow up.
When first being introduced to a group, it can be quite stressful trying to figure out how you and your team members are going to function together. As with any group, there are a few milestones that need to be reached in order to ensure a functional and successful relationship. Specifically, groups need to go through Tuckman’s Group Development Stages. These stages consist of forming, storming, norming, performing, and in some scenarios, a final stage of adjourning may be reached. After participating in this assignment, we as a group were easily able to identify, and analyze, each stage of our development.
This report will examine how group is being structured, on communication barriers among group members and the use of technology tools to conduct group assignment. The information of this report is based on firsthand experience and theories being applied to support the arguments.