Group Development: The Formation of Informal Work Groups “Informal groups have a powerful influence on the effectiveness of an organization, and can even subvert its formal groups. But, the informal group’s role is not limited to resistance. The impact of the informal group upon the larger formal group depends on the norms that the informal group sets. So the informal group can make the formal organization more effective, too.” Informal groups can either be a manager’s best friend or worst enemy. Group Development: The Formation of Informal Work Groups Informal work groups are part of any working environment; how they form, the leadership within the group and how these groups communicate, follow the same basic model. “Groups are particularly good at combining talents and providing innovate solutions to possible unfamiliar problems.” “There are five stages of group development. The first is forming,which is where the group first comes together. Everyone is usually polite. Conflict is seldom voiced directly. Individuals will be guarded in their own opinions and reserved.” The second form of developmentis “storming a chaotic vying for leadership and trailing of group operates.” The third is norming as the second stage evolves the rules of engagement for the group becomes established, and the scopes of the group’s task or responsibilities are clear and agreed. Fourth is performing,not all groups reach this point. Everyone knows each other well enough to be able to work together. And the fifth stage is adjourning; this is about the completion and disengagement of the tasks and group members. The formations of informal work groups are employed by an organization to perform specific functions. Informal groups almost always arise ... ... middle of paper ... ...t Your Self Esteem. http://a-self-confidence.com/ “A Self Confidence. Com.” Boost Your Self Esteem in the Workplace. http://a-self-confidence.com/self-esteem-workplace.php Boost Employee Morale in a Down Market 28 April 2003 http://goliath.ecnext.com/coms2/gi_0199-1164249/boost-employee-morale-in-a.html Group Dynamics http://www.brianmac.co.uk/group.html “Informal Group Dynamics.” Communications Network 2008 http://www.accel-team.com/work_groups/informal_grps_03.html Tubbs, Stewart L. “A Systems Approach to Small Group Interaction” Nierenberg, Andrea. “Eight Essential Communication Skills.” Smallbusinessadvocate. 2008 http://smallbusinessadvocate.com/smal-business-help-article/eight-essential-commu>. “How to Communicate Powerfully by E-mail.” Mindtools. http://www.mindtools.com/commskll/emailcommunication.html {text:bookmark-start} {text:bookmark-end}
Bormann E. G. & Bormann & N. C. (1996). Effective Small Group Communication (6th Edition). Edina, MN: Burgess Publishing.
Bruce Tuckman discovered that there are four stages of group development. The stages are; forming, storming, norming and performing. In the first stage of forming, the roles of the members are unclear. Everyone is getting to know each other, every person is a stranger and they all treat each other as such. At this stage the ground rules and objectives are not yet established. The
This essay will reflect on a series of activities, which were undertaken within the initial few weeks of forming a group. It will focus on the broad and specific approaches on how our current group dynamic and effectiveness was achieved. Tuckman’s model on the stages of group development will also be referenced throughout.
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).
Many everyday activities require people to collaborate with others, but there not the same type of group: school group, therapy group, business group, and many others. A study, Stages of Small-Group Development Revisited, written by Mary Ann C. Jensen shared the acknowledgment with Bruce W. Tuckman as coauthor. This article focuses on further study of Tuckman’s model through other literature with tested data.
This paper is going to examine the group work practice of the pilot group work program started by Youth centre (Jurong) — “Girls United” from four perspective: (a) Model of Group Work Practice, (b) Leadership Style and Co-leadership, (c) Planning of Activities, and (d) Group Work Approach. This paper will conclude by my “Personal Reflection on Group Dynamics”.
1. Blair, Gerard. Groups That Work, www.ee.ed.ac.uk/~gerad/Management/art0 (1998). The effectiveness of the team takes a nosedive, and the productiveness of the team is far less than the individual could have achieved had they not brought together.
After a literature review of several EBP interventions, and psycho-educational peer reviewed articles, addressing homelessness in women, it was found that self-esteem, self-efficacy, anger management, resiliency, communications skills, and anger management skills are a major component of healing for this population. Berzoff (2013) indicates that homeless women often feel “demeaned or bewildered,” and as a result their sense of self is habitually fragmented or diminished. For reasons such as this, many psycho-educational groups were found to include activities designed to increase awareness and skills in these areas. As a result this group will have several sessions dedicated to promoting growth in all of these areas.
Tuckman, B., & Jensen, M. (2010). Stages of small-group development revisited. Group Facilitation, (10), 43-48. Retrieved March 27, 2011, from ABI/INFORM Global.
Throughout this essay I hope to analyse theoretical organizational behaviour by drawing on my own experiences from working in groups. The groups I am going to use as part of my examples are all from formal groups. Huczynski and Buchanan (2007, p. 291) gives a good definition of Formal groups in a few bullet-points, where one of them is task-orientation which in my opinion has clearly characterized the groups I am talking about. The groups are not necessarily consisting of like-minded people, but individuals randomly picked by the lecturer/tutor which in many cases leads to different disagreements as the groups try to establish itself and the members of the group try to find their role within the group. Bruce Tuckman came up with a theory in the 1960s to explain how a group goes through several different stages on its way to success, which is known as the Tuckmans Stages of Group Development (Anon 2009, 12manage.com).
... Chapter 2: Small Group Communication Theory.Communicating in small groups: principles and practices (9th ed., pp. 42-44). Boston, MA: Pearson/Allyn and Bacon.
Working in groups can be a very positive or very negative experience. How a group functions together determines how positive or negative that experience becomes. All go through four stages of development, forming, norming, storming, and performing.. Unfortunately for our group, many of the members experienced some of these stages together and other missed out on that opportunity of original growth. Kirst-Ashman and Hull describe these stages as a pattern of development. This allows the group members to see how they are working together but also allows observers to see what stage the group is stuck on. I had hoped for my group to develop past the first stage of development quickly, however as a whole we couldn’t seem to get over this limbo of being a forming or norming group. Our group was not the best functioning, but working together taught me the important pieces of being a group member as well as working within a group.
After completing the group task of preparing a presentation on, transferring individual facilitation skills into a group work setting I will critically reflect upon my own participation. I will evaluate my self-awareness while working in the group, as well as those around me. The way that I personally dealt with any issues that arose within the group and how that affected the group dynamics. I will also briefly discuss the roles in which each member of the group took and how role allocation affected, the group dynamics and the working relationships. Finally I will evaluate my work having discussed it with my fellow group members.
Even though we are all categorized in to groups from the day were conceived. We can still create our own group, and whether are not you create your own group or if it was chosen for you there will be effective and ineffective aspects of that group. Base the circumstances that each individual’s values and beliefs are different. Further more, participation and similarity of other group members and the goals of the group will also affect the group dynamic.
The rapid progression and improvement in information and communication technology has led to modern organisation finding new ways to work. One of these innovation ways is using work group. More organisations are now becoming global than ever, which means they rely on distributed teams to carry out certain tasks (Nedelko, Z, 2007). Although now a days most jobs require a degree of individual and group work and it is left to the management to identify which method might be appropriate for the task (Belbin, M, 2007). In this essay I will be looking at how organisation can use work group to their advantage, and the different factors that can affect a work group’s performance. In addition, I will also be discussing when is it appropriate to use work group and individual, and discus whether an organisation can reply solely on work group to be for it to be successful.