Drawing on the theory and research on groups and teams, critically
discuss how an understanding of group processes / group dynamics
can help you when working in groups as part of your masters
programme and in your career.
It often used to be considered as uneducated belief if someone thought
the Earth was flat, but with the advance of science and technology, the
interconnection among people worldwide is much deeper as never before,
which makes the Earth as if it were flat. The activity of exchanging culture,
language and ideas with people from different countries could encourage most
of the organizations to stimulate more creativity, but on the other hand,
sometimes cultural diversity may prevent people from communicating
effectively and efficiently with each other. It could be argued that
self-adjustment is the most effective way to settle a dispute in a group, while I
believe that beside self-reflection, realize the development of the team is an
essential way to improve the team cohesiveness. In this essay, I will introduce
and analyze the theory, Tuckman’s the lifecycle of team, and try to give some
suggestions to help team members to deal with some particular issues may
occurring in some stages of the team development.
Tuckman’s the lifecycle of team
The psychologist Bruce Tuckman proposed the first four processes of
team development— forming, storming, norming and performing in 1965. Later,
in 1977, a fifth stage, adjourning, was added to the 4 stages. Miller (2003:122)
states that ‘ Tuckman suggested that when moving through these stages,
members are concerned with resolving both interpersonal relationships and
task activities, and the model describes these two types of activities as group
members progress through the five stages. Therefore, understanding the
theory may enable members to resolve conflicts quickly, exercise the
leadership appropriately and increase productivity ultimately in every stage of
group dynamics.
1 Forming
At the forming stage, which occurs when the team first meets each other,
allocating a group leader, setting a common goal, assigning the responsibilities
may be the three most important tasks for groups to do. This is because that in
this period of time, individuals are strange to each other and the organization.
Moreover, there is little agreement on group aims and the responsibilities of
each member, which sometimes may lead to members feeling anxious and
depressed.
Consequently, in order to dispel the anxiety within the group, develop a
common goal and distribute the responsibilities properly, identifying someone
who is capable of providing clear direction for the group and coordinating
members well as a group leader is very crucial for a group, which may decide
that if a team could have a good start or not.
