The Forgotten Group Member

This stage sees group members begin to confront each other as they begin to vie for roles within the group that will help them to belong and to feel valued. Thus as members begin to assert their individual personalities, the comfort of the forming stage begins to come under siege. Members experience personal, intra and inter group conflicts. Aggression and resentment may manifest in this stage and thus if strong personalities emerge and leadership is unresponsive to group and individual needs, the situation may become destructive to the

The forming stage is characterized by dependency, and need for acceptance and guidance. In this stage the "meet and greet" is done. During the meet and greet each member gathers information that will determine the strength of potential relationships amongst group members, as well as establish group hierarchy. Generally, in this stage the leader of group is selected. The group leader has a tendency to be someone that is viewed as stable and

In the third stage, the group develops solidarity. Team members understand each other’s trait and express personal opinions. In this phase norms and roles are established. “Neuman and Wright (1999) described this as a stage of developing shared mental models and discovering the most effective ways to work with each other” (Bonebright, 2010, p. 114). Tuckman (1965) stated that in this phase, the team becomes an entity because members develop in-group feeling and seek to maintain and immortalize the group as a result the conflicts are avoided for effort to ensure

At this stage, the group begins to realize the more positive points of individuals within the group, which promotes the development of trust and respect which begins to build group cohesion. The next stage is the performing stage, which is typical of high-performing teams that are able to function as a group and figure out various options to get the job done smoothly and effectively without supervision. The final stage is the adjourning phase, which is the final step in completing tasks and breaking up the team.

In the third stage the norms in group are formed, team is adapting to the leader. Positions and roles are clarified and the team move forward, they participate

The third stage is the Norming stage, this is where the team members resolve tension and work together as a unified team in order to achieve the teams common goal/goals.

If Christine had the group speak about their expectations (accountability) in the Forming stage of the group than she might not have had to deal with the Storming Stage and combating the tensions in the group throughout all stages. If these steps were followed the group may have been able to go straight from the Forming Stage to the Norming Stage, bypassing the tension stage.

Tuckman (1965) proposed that when developing teams, groups proceed through four general stages of development, namely: Forming, storming, norming and performing.

Developmental Sequence in Small Groups by Bruce W. Tuckman reveals the four-stage model involved in the development of small groups. The four-stage model consists of forming, storming, norming, and performing. However, in 1977 Tuckman developed a fifth stage of development called adjourning. In order to understand group development, one must first become familiar with the dynamic of a group setting. Group settings impact the way individuals interact with one another.

Following the forming stage is the storming stage. Throughout this stage, a high level of conflict occurred within the team. There were frustrations between team members during their meetings, as well as confusion regarding each

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.

The forming and orientation stage of the group is the initial step of getting the group started. Gladding (2012) outlines seven steps that make up the forming stage of group development. First, one must develop a basis for the group.

The second stage when the team enters into the storming phase which is hard and usually many groups fail at this stage. Because of conflicts between team members, they work on their tasks in a different natural way which they feel comfortable doing it and it brings frustration to some members of the team. (Tuckman, 1965) Tony asked to complete research on St George hospital care system, but Vida and Sam were not pleased for it and they tried to complete the task which was not acceptable to the team. Tony and other colleagues wanted them to fulfill the task in another way, which creates some issues for the team and they were requesting to change their tasks to introduction only. But Tony already assigned the introduction section of presentation

In the case study, The Forgotten Group Member, we are introduced to Christine, who is a student that comes forth as an overachiever. She believes her education is very important and is a stepping stone to her career. Thus, she maintains an A grade point average. Christine’s dilemma comes in the form of a group assignment for her Organizational Behavior course. As an individual, she performs with excellency, but to her misfortune the assignment was a group project. Christine exercises control in all aspects of her education, but this project was out of her control therefore she felt uneasy about the situation.

As time passed onto week five into the semester, Christine worried about the project even more which lead to her arranging a meeting with the entire group. Christine would have preferred the team to possess a great deal of synergy which occurs when a group as a whole is greater than the sum of its part. Although, most groups or teams aspires to be an effective team this does not always occur. Indubitably, Mike could not make it to the meeting because of work related issues as he indicated. This is when she realized that in fact, he barely made it to any other