Facebook’s Project Professional and the 5 Step Group Process

1. Facebook’s Project Professional and the 5 Step Group Process

With increased competition from LinkedIn, Facebook, having conquered the social side of networking, is now ready to take on the professional world and give LinkedIn a run for their money. Janice, Bob, Betty, Frieda, and I, as the head of the team, embark on a project to create a new module on Facebook that will allow users to post their resumes. In addition, on this module you will be able to create a profile with professional skills and note what you are looking for and you will be able to post job openings and receive alerts when other job opportunities are posted that will directly link to those interests you have indicated in your profile. Thus begins the stages of developing a group.

In the forming stage there is much uncertainty and personal dealings are categorized by dependence. The members of the group rely on patterned behavior and seek out the group leader for guidance and direction. In this stage controversy is usually avoided and members observe and take note of similarities and differences among each other for possible future sub groupings.

As my group comes together, I note that Janice does not contribute to the discussions, however when we are not in meetings she will come over and give me wonderful, thought out ideas. She tends to shut down when Bob starts to talk over her. At this point Frieda does not seem engaged at all and I often catch Betty rolling her eyes. To try to address these concerns I ask Janice questions during our meetings to encourage her feedback, often drawing on one of the ideas she may have mentioned to me in passing. If Bob begins to talk over her, I ask him to kindly wait until Janice is done speaking so that everyone’s ideas can be given consideration. I play on Frieda’s techy side by asking her specific questions in regards to programming, which is one of her specialties and for Betty I merely try to keep her calm by letting her know that I’m hearing her out if she gets agitated when expressing herself.

The second stage storming is characterized by intragroup conflict. There is competition and conflict when attempting to organize for the task as the group members have to fashion their ideas, feelings, beliefs, and attitudes to go well with the group organization. Questions arise as to who will be responsible for different tasks. In order to advance to the next level or stage, the group members must go from the testing or proving mentality to the problem solving mentality.

Janice has started to give her ideas more often, but Bob has gotten a bit confrontational and makes comments about the “smart” one having another idea. Betty gets quite animated and annoyed when Bob begins to speak and she tells him to “shut up.” Frieda says that this is exactly why people should work independently and not in groups and that with so much technology everyone