Teamwork Theory: Tuckman's Stages Of Group Development

For this task I am going to discuss theories of communication which will be formatted in a booklet. I will also explain Argyle’s communication cycle and Tuckman’s group interaction.

In order to run a successful organization, especially a good standing Army, there needs to be quality leaders within the organization. Leaders are artists, remaining flexible and adaptable in order to conform to any certain situation. In FM 6-22, leadership is defined as, “the process of influencing people by providing purpose, direction, and motivation while operating to accomplish the mission and improve the organization”. The vast majority of successful Army leaders exemplify this definition in their everyday life. So, what exactly does this process involve? Moreover, successful Army leaders and officers lead by example, exemplify essential characteristics of the Army Profession, and develops others.

Teamwork plays an important role in risk reduction and promoting safe patients care. For the importance of teamwork, it is considered one of the main elements included in the Code of Conduct in Oman’s nursing profession.

The word ‘team’ can be defined as a group of people working together towards a common goal. A team also generally is known as a group of people with different skills and different tasks, who works together on a common project, services, or goal. Then, the important thing in teamwork is ‘collaboration’, which is the act of working effectively with others to achieve a common goal. Collaboration acts as the lifeblood in the team, even the team is not large enough, but the collaboration is required.

Tuckman's model of group development has five stages; forming, storming, norming, performing and adjourning. The forming stage is the one where the team is developing; role and responsibilities are unclear, everyone depends on the leader. The second stage; storming, members establish relationship with other members, and the team try to focus on its goals. The stage three; norming, this is very important because roles and responsibilities are clear and accepted by members. The stage four; performing, the team has a shared vision, most of the member are able to be autonomous, some disagreements occurs, but the group find solutions, and help each other to accomplish a common goal. The final stage; adjourning, it is the break of the groups after

In a group communication context Tuckman theorised and established the “Developmental sequence in small groups” in 1965. His theory on group communication, educates us on how people work together through 5 stages. Forming, Storming, Norming, Preforming and Adjourning.

Running down the field with the ball in my feet and my teammates shouting at me to pass the ball. My only thought was that I can score alone, I don 't need my teammates. I guess now looking back in the past when I was a kid I never realized how valuable teamwork is in soccer. Looking back I almost never played like I was on a team. I played like it was a one man show. Now that I 've understood why teamwork is important i 've changed the way I play in the game.

In essence, teamwork can be defined as a group of people working in the same direction and for a common purpose. Teamwork requires individuals be a team player and to be able to work well with others; after all, there is no “I” in “Team”!

This is the first stage of the group formation. In this stage, the group members are new to each other. Some of them are excited to work and some are nervous about the work to be done. This is the stage where leaders need to take charge as the roles and responsibilities of the team members aren’t clear.

I’m going to explain the Bruce Tuckman theories Tuckman’s theories focus on the way in which a team tackles a task from the initial information of the team through to the completion of the project the Tuckman theory is particularly relevant to team building challenges the first 4 stages are

Tuckman’s development show how groups can be developed into real teams, from given the right sort of support. Tuckman identifies four stages. Forming – number of individuals come together. They are a loose collection with not clear purpose. Storming – the group begins of ideas but there is as yet little structure to the group and no plans to the group forward. Norming – the group beings to share ideas and the team brings to form. Decisions begin to be formulated. Performing – A clear organisational pattern is formed, based on mutual respect, the sharing of ideas and the drawing out of plans and proposals from all members of the team. [pg.367 John Bevan, Helen Coupland-Smith, Rob Dranfield, John Goymer, Catherine Richards

Traditional teams, also known as conventional or co-located or collocated teams, consist of individuals working in physical proximity, while the virtual teams (as previously defined) refers to a group of individuals who are separated by physical distance but are united by a shared goal. Though both traditional and virtual teams go through the five stages of Bruce Tuckman’s model of team development but the dynamics experienced by the members of virtual teams are more complex. This is largely due to the fact that members of virtual team rely solely on electronic communication and collaboration technology to facilitate interactions among them. Also the cultural boundaries and time zones differences add to its complex

Bruce Tuckman developed this model of team development in 1965. The focal point of developing this model is a team building challenge where the team developed a given task to handle problems, face objections, and differences in views at the initial stage to the completion of the given challenge with finding appropriate solutions, plan their work to achieve set target or goal.

To work at their maximum efficiency and develop a cohesiveness between its members, groups should progress through the five stages of group development as outlined by Tuckman (Forsyth, 2009). From the initial stage of orientation through the final stage of dissolution, groups evolve over time through a predictable course. A new group was formed when I joined the adult education team at our learning center almost five years ago. Even though a significant amount of time has passed, this group is still functioning in the conflict stage. It seems we are unable to progress to the next stage without possibly having a significant change occur or an increase in the motivation of the group members to make it occur. This seems to be the norm for this team in this

In 1965, Bruce Tuckman proposed a straightforward model of small group development and their interaction with each over time. Tuckman's model had four phases of development, forming, storming, norming, and performing, until 1977. Tuckman alongside Jensen returned to the model and chose to include another phase called adjourning. Figure 1 shows Tucker's model. How quick a group moves through this model relies on the individuals of the group and any difficulties they may face. To decide the phase a group might be in, extensively, their enthusiasm and skill level compared to their previous levels.