Tuckman's Five Stages During Group Development

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According to Tuckman (1965, p. 66), groups move through five stages during group development; forming, storming, norming, performing and adjourning. The more productive the group the more time spent in the performing stage, synergy develops, and the balance of rules and roles emerge. Most of us have been known each other for a while because we study almost the same units, therefore, the group forming evolved without any hesitation. Eunson (2012, p.600) states during the storming phase conflicts could happen over influence, control and leadership. Misunderstandings about role could occur, poor listening and feedback could happen, problem-solving could be ineffective and group decision could suffer. There was not conflict over the leadership …show more content…

I feel my group reached its final phase before destructive role-playing appeared. I felt the group spent most of the time in “unproductive” stages; namely, storming and norming. I think the group stage jumping happened because the leader was inexperienced; did not behave as a leader. I felt there was time management issue during the group work because hardly any tasks were delegated in the first two weeks. There were no setup deadlines agreed and communicated within the group what we could have stuck to. EY states leadership is necessary to high-performing teams. The leader needs to provide clear direction, leadership and does not behave contradictory. I knew he was not a group leader at Swinburne before, so I wanted to help him. As such, I proposed, organised and facilitated group meeting; I provided a brief during the first meeting because Ritz and Joshua did not understand the task. By using the messenger I reminded others to upload their tasks and assisted them when they needed. I wanted cohesion to develop early via frequent interaction and agreement on group goals and this could have led to higher productive …show more content…

Team efforts need to be coordinated by someone who assists the group in obtaining what they need for success. The leader needs to be decisive, provide direction, organise team effort, manage and monitor time effectively, be authentic and remain cohesive. Moreover, time must be spent to discuss common ground rules and set up common goals and deadlines. During the group work, I felt we went back to the storming-norming stage several times; when there was no feedback given when I asked for. Another example is when I did what the leader asked me to do and he acted contrary by placing his documents in separate files. He could have said, from now on please copy your work in the shared working document that Tamas made us available. According to Prive (2012), the leader needs to acknowledge the work that everyone has dedicated and keep spirits up. Being able to communicate clearly is essential, especially when someone is the leader. I assume the leader did not know what he should do to manage the group effectively. Moreover, there was no performance expectation established, there was no defined mission in the beginning. I did not know whether we wanted to go for an HD or just get a