The Five Stages of Group Development

As leaders and managers in the marketplace, the manager must be able to know and identify the stages of development that a group is in. Issues and questions arising from the particular stage that a group is in can then be dealt with adequately when the manager is aware of the characteristics of the group and their effect. This paper is an analysis of group behavior questions and their effect on effective management.

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Stages of Group Development

There are five stages of group development namely: the formation, storming, norming, performance and adjournment stages. The fifth stage was later added in the course of review of further literature on the subject. The formation stage describes the time when members of the group came together, tagging along anxiety and cautious behavior. The storming stage is the most conflicting one as now the members have had an introduction to the tasks of the group and they are now forming personal role plays of what they should do and their purpose in the group. Norming, being the third stage, comes after the clarity of roles played in the group has been given and the group is now working as a cohesive unit. In this stage, each member of the group brings to the group their skill, knowledge and experience in a complimentary manner. The performing stage is characterized by high achievement on the part of the group following effective role playing and communication between group members. After the completion of expected tasks, the group disperses in the process of adjournment, but may come back together should another similar set of circumstances bring them together (Hatzell, 2013).

Information Gathering for the Group

In the case of gathering information for groups, it is necessary that the group considers the kind of information that it wishes to gather in order to choose an appropriate method for gathering. The information gathering can be done in so many different ways, including working in the desired environment, filling questionnaires, interviewing users, studying analogous research in the area of work, talking to the relevant support teams, conducting workshops and producing prototypes for the stakeholder use and analysis. In the collection of data regarding such a work environment, it is necessary that the requirements of the group project be analyzed and the best method of data collection determined. This is because the different data collection methods will have different effectiveness in the case of differentiated projects (Eclipse, 2013).

Approaches to High Performance Team Building

Some of the most important things to making sure that there is high performance in the team are ensuring that there is commonality in the goals and collaboration of the team. The three major components of having an effective team are ensuring that they have an adequate understanding of each member of the group, ensuring adequate knowledge of the subject matter and ensuring effective communication between team members (Govindarajan & Gupta, 2001). Highly effective teams understand the bigger picture; have common goals and work as a unit in the course of their work. As such, there is no deviation from the goal, creating a very high performing and focused team (Musselwhite, 2007).

Self-managing Teams Versus Traditional Organizations

Self-managing teams and traditional organizations have a lot of differences when considered. One of the major differences is the drive of both teams. While traditional organizations are management driven, self-managing teams are more about customer satisfaction and will often bend to the needs of the customer. Furthermore, the self-driven team will have few job descriptions for its potential team members as opposed to the traditional organization which exemplifies qualifications of the members. In addition, the self-managing teams are quite self driven and thus have fewer levels of management as opposed to the traditional organization.

In conclusion, there is a significant need for managers to know the kind of teams that they are dealing with. The above titles have shown various classifications of teams that may require different approaches. As such, effective management practice requires that the manager/team leader be aware of such factors for effective leadership.

References

BIBLIOGRAPHY Eclipse. (2013). Guideline: Requirements Gathering Techniques. Retrieved January 9, 2016, from Eclipse.org: http://epf.eclipse.org/wikis/epfpractices/core.tech.common.extend_supp/guidances/guidelines/req_gathering_techniques_8CB8E44C.html.

Govindarajan, V., & Gupta, A. K. (2001). Building an effective global business team. MIT Sloan Management Review , 63.

Hatzell, S. (2013). Stages of Group Development: Forming, Storming, Norming, Performing & Adjourning. Retrieved January 9, 2016, from Study.com: http://study.com/academy/lesson/stages-of-group-development-forming-storming-forming-performing-adjourning.html

Musselwhite, C. (2007). Building and Leading High Performance Teams. Retrieved January 9, 2016, from inc.com: http://www.inc.com/resources/leadership/articles/20070101/musselwhite.html