Team development

Date: 2015-10-07; view: 662.

C. Using your own teamwork experience, name 1) the stage(s) which can be skipped; 2) the other hazards a team can face at each of the stages.

B. Read the text once again and find potential hazards a team can face at some stages.

A. Scan through the text to check if you were right.

Tuckman's (1965) model is a classic team development model. The assumption is that the team goes through a series of development stages towards better communication, maturity in relationships, and better performance. The model incorporates the now famous stages of 'forming', 'storming', 'norming' and 'perform­ing'. The fifth stage, 'adjourning', was later added in Tuckman and Jensen (1977).

1 Forming: in the first stage of team development, the forming of the team takes place. The team meets and learns about the opportuni­ties and challenges, and then agrees on goals and begins to undertake the tasks. Team members tend to behave quite independently and are usually relatively uninformed of the issues and objectives of the team. This stage is a good opportunity to observe how each member works.

2 Storming: the team addresses issues such as what problems they are really supposed to solve and how to function independently and col­laboratively. Team members open up to each other and confront each other's ideas and perspectives. In some cases storming can be resolved quickly. In other cases the team never leaves this stage. The phase can become destructive to the team if allowed to get out of control.

3 Norming: team members adjust their behaviour to each other as they develop work habits, making teamwork seem more natural and fluid. A number of dynamic processes develop when team members agree on rules, values, professional behaviour, and shared methods. During this stage, team members begin to trust each other and moti­vation increases as the team gets more acquainted with the project. However, the team may lose creativity if the norming behaviours become too strong and the team begins to exhibit 'group think'.

4 Performing: the high-performing team finds ways to get the job done smoothly and effectively as team members are now competent, autonomous, knowledgeable and able to handle the decision-making process without supervision. The team will make most of the neces­sary decisions.

5 Adjourning and transforming: adjourning involves completing the task and breaking up the team. The team may transcend to a trans­forming phase of achievement.

(Human Resource Management: The Key Concepts. 2010)