Stages of Group Development

Coursework 4

According to Tuckman and Jensen (1977), there are five stages of group development. The five stages are "forming", "storming", "norming", "performing", and "adjourning". Forming is when everyone is instructed to group together for a particular purpose and understand the task to be accomplished but there are sceptical between each other. This is the period of "testing-out" our group members. Storming is where some minor confrontations will arise that is quickly dealt with. These may relate to the work of the group itself or to responsibilities within the group. The conflict will be more or less suppressed, but it'll be there, under the surface and here is where leader is being chosen by everyone or subconsciously. Norming is they now understand each other better, can appreciate each other's skills. Individuals listen, support each other, and are prepared to change pre-conceived views. They feel they're part of a cohesive, effective group. Performing is the group can begin to get some work done on a relatively stable structure. Everyone knows each other well and can work together, trusts each other to allow independent activity. Adjourning is about completion and disengagement, both from the tasks and group members. Individuals will be proud of having achieved much and they reflect on what they've done, and consciously move on. (Knights & Willmott 2010, p91)

For my personal experience, I form a group with four friends for the purpose of MOB research project and we did not know each other well but started to know what we have to do for this project. According to Tuckman & Jensen's theory, this is the forming stage. During the process of this project, my group members fall sick continuously and we hard to get a suitable time to gather everyone for discussion, we started to have some conflict. We also chose Amanda as our leader. This is the storming stage pointed out by Tuckman & Jensen. Next, we get to know each other more and understand on everyone's strengths and weaknesses. From this, we are able to contribute our task easily based on everyone's personal strength. We support each other as everyone has the chance to present every week. Thus, this is the norming stage which pointed out by Tuckman & Jensen. Apart from that, we also listen to each other's opinions, get Ms Irene's advice and perform our task well every week for the mini presentation. This is the performing stage pointed out by Tuckman & Jensen. We had also gone through the adjourning stage which stated in the model as after our final presentation, we feel relax, happy and proud of what we had done. We also feel glad that we are able to complete evrything although there are some minor problem occurs and we are thankful that we have the chance to been a part of