A Study on Tuckman’s Stages of Group Development Model
1. Introduction
Over the past two decades, it seems that teamwork has become increasingly important and more companies have formed different teams and groups for various purposes (Samson & Daft, 2012). It is proved that good teams can be highly productive, however, not every team is successful (Samson & Daft, 2012). Forming a team can be time consuming and there are many problems related to teamwork, for example, social loafing might reduce the effectiveness of a team. Therefore, it is crucial to know how to develop a good team with less time and less effort. Bruce Tuckman in 1965 developed the popular model for effective team building. This model identifies four stages of team building which are forming, storming, norming and performing (Tuckman, 1965). Later on, Tuckman added a fifth stage: adjourning to the model (Samson & Daft, 2012). The five-stage team development model provides a guideline on how team works by using simple and easily understandable words. However, there are some limitations of this theory as well. This paper in the following will discuss both the utility and the limitations of Tuckman’s team development stage model. Then it will provide some suggestions based on the limitations of the model.
2. Overview of Tuckman’s group development model
2.1 importance of teamwork
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2.2 Tuckman’s group development model
Tuckman (1965) separated 50 articles dealing with stages of group development into
Creating Effective Teams: a Guide for Members and Leaders is a book by Wheelan (2013) designed to do as the title states; guiding members and leaders to create effective teams. Wheelan (2013) begins the book by highlighting the reasons that groups are important. Wheelan (2013) states that throughout history, “Groups have played a major role in both the survival of human beings and the development of human culture” (p. 1). The majority of the book is based on 4 stages that create a group of individuals into an effective team. The first stage is called dependency and inclusion. According to Wheelan (2013), the first stage of the group is
Remember the Titans movie presents an opportunity to look at the development stages of leadership over the course of a season. The movie takes place at a high school in Virginia in 1971. The school replaces its current Caucasian football coach – Bill Yoast with an African American coach – Herman Boone. Herman Boone as the head coach and Bill Yoast as the assistant coach form a successful football team through struggles and racial issues between team members and the people of the town they lived in.
Wheelan (2013) identifies the four stages of team development and provides detailed explanation of how a group transforms itself from a stage one group of uncertainty into a successful, highly productive stage four team. This requires work and a thorough understanding of the many internal/external influences that can occur during each stage. A team member or leader who is well versed in these stages and who can evolve with each stage will be better equipped to deal with possible obstacles that can hinder group progress and implement practices to help the group successfully work through a
The features of effective team performance are set out in Brian Tuckman’s phases of team development theory, ‘Forming, Storming, Norming, Performing.’ This outlines the phases that a team will go through in order to become effective and reach maturity. At the ‘Forming’ stage of team development individual roles and responsibilities are unclear and each member of the team is concerned to avoid conflict with each other. From this point the team will go through the ‘Storming’ phase which is when they start to conflict as individuals put forward ideas which will be challenged by others in a bid to gain power and position over others. After this the ‘Norming’ phase follows and it is at this point that individual roles are defined and accepted
The Performing stage was the last stage of Bruce Tuckman's four stages of group development until the 70's when Tuckman felt the importance to create an additional fifth stage to his model the "adjourning" which became the last stage. A group (shift) reaches the performing when all it members solves the conflict in the Norming stage therefore had establish the norms of the group and the members are operate as one. Thus, the group identity is finalized, in our experience it was a unique one.
Traditionally teams are built by putting a group of people together without considering many traits or characteristics about those people, then expecting them to work together in a productive manner. Often times this does not work well at all, particularly if the person in charge is unfamiliar with the team concept themselves. Teams have to be cohesive in their ability to make decisions and handle projects within their organization. Sometimes cohesiveness causes team members who are not adept at working with others to push back at the team and this causes friction within the team. Team building models have been developed over the years to make teams work.
When teams are made, you cannot expect them to connect and everything falls into place. It is important for the team to build rapport and develop trust. The more time that a team spends together, the relationship generally improves. Bruce Tuckman’s discusses the different stages of team development such as forming, storming, norming, and performing that are certain for the team to grow. These stages allow the team to face challenges, tackle problems, find resolutions, plan work, and deliver results.
Tuckman’s (1965) Team Development Model; Forming is the first step and includes the process of;
Team building is centered on helping other move through different stage of a group development which helps each other strengthens their relationship within the team and other member’s to understand the roles and responsibilities required. (Bierema, L. 2014) Tuckman’s stages use the forming; storming; norming and performing model for group development. This was first proposed by Bruce Tuckman in 1965. (Bierema, L. 2014) When it comes to the current team I am linked with, we are currently not involved in any of these stages. Since this chapter, I have brought this suggestion my management so start this process. Prior to me starting in this department, current supervisors would do what they felt was correct which can contradict what the correct
Our group experience aligns with Bruce W Tuckman’s group development cycles. Tuckman’s first stage to group development is the forming stage, which members act cautiously with each other in order to understand the group's goal. Since group members were assigned at random, all members put in the effort to be cordial with each other. In the beginning, our group's climate was spontaneous. We had little to none primary tension as everyone was positive and encouraged each other to share their ideas for a product. When members were shy to put input in group decisions, I made sure to ask them for their opinion. For example, I noticed that I was contributing a lot of my ideas for possible products but group member Tony had yet to comment on his ideas.
There are many theories on the ways that group form and become efficient and effective teams. One of the best-known team development theories was first developed by Bruce Tuckman in 1965 and has formed the basis of many further ideas since its conception.
Psychologist Bruce Tuckman later created a team development model which consisted of five stages: Forming stage, storming stage, norming stage, performing stage and adjourning stage (Management 13th edition, 2015). Each of the five stages builds on the previous one, meaning if any stage was skipped
Bruce W Tuckman (1965) developed a model to describe the differing stages of team development. He gave us a way of interpreting the various stages groups pass through into making an effective team. As you can see from the illustration below, teams go
This balance is often observed difficult to achieve, especially within the solution teams. This is mainly attributed to the team formation stages as described by the Bruce Tuckman’s model (1965). According to Tuckman, the team formation goes through the forming, storming, norming and performing stages in progression. In the forming stage, there is a high dependence on leader for guidance and direction. In the storming stage, team members vie for position as they attempt to
The Tuckman Model of Group Development has 5 stages: Forming, Storming, Norming, and Adjourning (Maples, 2008). During the first session of MOP, everyone was tasked with forming their own small project team. The very first class workshop activity involved meeting two new people and introducing one of them to the entire class. The aim of the activity was to indirectly assess who we would want to be in a team with, based on our perceptions of a person’s behaviour, values, and work ethic. Most people would want to be in a team with people similar to them on a surface level (age, gender, ethnicity) and on a deeper level (personality, attitudes, believes, values) (Liang, Shih, & Chiang, 2015). We were free to choose whoever we wanted in our team under the condition that the team we form is diverse.