Stages of Group Development

Essay by christyypjUniversity, Bachelor's February 2012

download word file, 6 pages 0.0

Coursework 4

According to Tuckman and Jensen (1977), there are five stages of group development. The five stages are "forming", "storming", "norming", "performing", and "adjourning". Forming is when everyone is instructed to group together for a particular purpose and understand the task to be accomplished but there are sceptical between each other. This is the period of "testing-out" our group members. Storming is where some minor confrontations will arise that is quickly dealt with. These may relate to the work of the group itself or to responsibilities within the group. The conflict will be more or less suppressed, but it'll be there, under the surface and here is where leader is being chosen by everyone or subconsciously. Norming is they now understand each other better, can appreciate each other's skills. Individuals listen, support each other, and are prepared to change pre-conceived views. They feel they're part of a cohesive, effective group.

Performing is the group can begin to get some work done on a relatively stable structure. Everyone knows each other well and can work together, trusts each other to allow independent activity. Adjourning is about completion and disengagement, both from the tasks and group members. Individuals will be proud of having achieved much and they reflect on what they've done, and consciously move on. (Knights & Willmott 2010, p91)

For my personal experience, I form a group with four friends for the purpose of MOB research project and we did not know each other well but started to know what we have to do for this project. According to Tuckman & Jensen's theory, this is the forming stage. During the process of this project, my group members fall sick continuously and we hard to get a suitable time to gather everyone for discussion, we started to have some...