Reference no: EM132161051

Question - Team Building

Background Information - The term 'group dynamics' refers to the interactions between people who are talking together in a group setting. Group dynamics can be studied in business settings, in volunteer settings, in classroom settings, and in social settings. Any time there are three or more individuals interacting or talking together, there are group dynamics. A great deal can be learned by observation. If one sits back quietly in a group? any group? one will begin to see certain behavioral patterns emerge. There will be at least one person who tends to take the lead in conversation, offering his or her thoughts and opinions freely. There will be at least one person who remains quiet, sometimes not even appearing interested in the conversation. There may be someone who tends to interrupt other people, someone who wants the conversation to move along faster, or who wants to focus on a different subject. Another person may be concerned about peoples' feelings and may try to make everyone feel equally welcome. These are only a few of the roles that people assume without even thinking about it when they are in a group setting.

Discussion Prompt - Groups are a common arrangement in today's business environments. Any manager who works with or supervises groups should be familiar with how they develop over time. Perhaps the best-known scheme for a group development was advanced by Bruce Tuckman in 1965. Initially, Tuckman identified four stages of group development, which included the stages of forming, storming, norming, and performing. Later on he added adjourning to his list. Read Bruce Tuckman's Team Development Model ( Please see the attachment )(Links to an external site.)Links to an external site.. What did Tuckman mean by those four stages? How do you recognize them when you are working with a group? Finally, can a leader form a successful team without going through those stages? Justify your answer.

In your responses to classmates, share what techniques you learned from others' posts that you may utilize in your own career.

Tasks  -

1. Describe Tuckman's Team Development Model, including the five stages.

2. Apply the stages in Tuckman's Team Development Model to working with a group.

3. Justify whether a team can form with or without utilizing Tuckman's Team Development Model.

While we are focusing on Tuckman's team development model, which is the most widely used model, there are alternatives. In this post, this writer provides a brief overview of the Tuckman model, as well as the work of three other theorists.

Tuckman Model - You cannot expect a new team to perform well when it first comes together. Forming a team takes time, and members often go through recognizable stages as they change from being a collection of strangers to a united group with common goals. Bruce Tuckman''s Forming, Storming, Norming, and Performing model describes these stages. When you understand it, you can help your new team become effective more quickly.

About the Model - Psychologist Bruce Tuckman first came up with the memorable phrase "forming, storming, norming, and performing" in his 1965 article, "Developmental Sequence in Small Groups." He used it to describe the path that most teams follow on their way to high performance. Later, he added a fifth stage, "adjourning" (which is sometimes known as "mourning"). While this is the most recognized and used, you should consider looking at the theories of McGrath (1991), and the work of Ancona and Caldwell (1990).

TIP Theory - McGrath's theory, Time, Interaction, and Performance Theory (TIP) (1991), which emphasized the notion that different teams might follow different developmental paths to reach the same outcome. He also suggested that teams engage in four modes of group activity: inception, technical problem solving, conflict resolution and execution, here is a chart which depicts, McGrath's theory.

Functions

Production

Well-being

Member Support

Mode 1: Inception

Production Demand/

Opportunity

Technical

Interaction Demand/ Opportunity Role

Inclusion Demand/

Opportunity

Position/

Mode II: Problem Solving

Problem Solving

Network Definition

Status Attainment

Mode III: Conflict

Policy Conflict Resolution

Power/Payoff Distribution

Contribution Payoff

Relationships

Mode IV: Execution

Performance

Interaction

Participation

Product Teams

Additionally, the work of Ancona and Caldwell was directed at new product teams. Their work focused on the activities teams use to manage their organizational environment beyond their teams. Anaconda and Caldwell (1992) focused on the approach used by 38 new-product team managers in high-technology companies, log data from two of these teams. Their results disclosed that teams engage in vertical communications aimed at molding the views of top management, horizontal communication aimed at coordinating work and obtaining feedback, and horizontal communication aimed at general scanning of the technical and market environment. Organizational teams appear to develop distinct strategies toward their environment: some specialize in particular external activities, some remain isolated from the external environment, and others engage in multiple external activities. Their work showed that over time, teams following a comprehensive strategy enter positive cycles of external activity, internal processes, and performance that enable long-term team success.

Team Process  - There is also the work of Marks, Mathieu, and Zacarro (2001), who examined the examine the meaning of team process. They defined the team process in the context of a multiphase episodic framework related to goal accomplishment, arguing that teams are multitasking units that perform multiple processes simultaneously and sequentially to orchestrate goal-directed taskwork. They provided a different taxonomy of team process dimensions synthesized from previous research and theorizing, a taxonomy that reflected their time-based conceptual framework.

Punctuated Equilibrium Model - Another theorist into team development is Gersick (1991), Punctuated Equilibrium Model, which stated, groups do not develop in a universal sequence of stages as suggested by the five-phase model. Her research, which is based on the systems concept of punctuated equilibrium group development, found that the timing of when groups form and actually change the way they work is highly consistent.

Conclusion - As you can see, there are many different theories associated with team development, and these are just a couple of them. As with any approach to team development, or any other leadership approach, there are always alternatives. Similar to leadership styles, or ethical decision-making, as a leader, you have to look at many different approaches, and hopefully choose the one that works best for that given situation.

References  - Ancona, D & Caldwell, D., (1992). Bridging The Boundary: External Activity And Performance In Organizational Teams. Administrative Science Quarterly. 37. . 10.2307/2393475.

Gersick, C.G., (1991). Revolutionary change theories: A multilevel exploration of the punctuated equilibrium paradigm. Academy of Management Review, Vol. 16, No. 1, 10-36.

Marks, Michelle & Mathieu, John & J. Zaccaro, Stephen. (2001). A Temporally Based Framework and Taxonomy of Team Processes. The Academy of Management Review. 26. 356. 10.2307/259182.

McGrath, J.E., (1991). Time, Interaction, and Performance (TIP): A theory of groups. Small group research, volume 22, issue 2, pp 147-174.

Attachment:- Assignment Files.rar