Primary Collaborative Post (Post)

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

Whether groups are formed for social or task oriented purposes, the ability to produce and maintain a sense of affiliation, peer support and collaboration is important for overall group functioning. The cohesion of a social group is produced through the establishment of a set of group norms, which are later defined as a guide for conduct accepted within a group of individuals. However, in order for a group to perform and produce results, the team leader should guide his/her team through the proper stages of group development, which includes the following steps: forming, storming, norming, performing and adjourning. Although teams should follow all these stages of group development, the forming and the norming stages are the most important,

Similar to Tuckman’s five stages of group development is Corey and Corey, they claim that the first stage; Pregroup is “setting expectations, establishing group rules and procedures, role preparation and skills building” (Corey, Corey, Corey 2010 p123). The group did well in this stage, as the group was given a very clear aim, we discussed each members skill sets and while preparing a group contract with our aims objectives and rules. A group contract is a very useful facilitation tool as it sets out very clear guidelines for the group and defines what is acceptable and unacceptable behaviour for the group members (Tuckman 1965). The group members were able to gain clarity from the group contract, allowing them to identify the norms and boundaries of the group. For example our group decided that if a member were for any reason not be able to attend a meeting they would have to let the team know in advance, if this did happen the rest of the team would relay the information via email to the missing group member.

Randy Hirokawa and Dennis Gouran developed the Functional Perspective on Group Decision Making theory to “offer practical advice on how participants can act to ensure better group decisions” (Hirokawa, 1999, p. 170). They believe that as long as the members in a group care about the issue and are reasonably intelligent, the group interaction will have a positive effect on the final decision. In order for a group to reach a high-quality solution, Hirokawa and Gouran believe the group 's decision-making process needs to fulfill four task requirements they refer to as requisite functions of effective decision making. "Three core assumptions define the functional perspective: (1) groups are goal oriented; (2) group performance varies in quality and quantity, and can be evaluated; and (3) internal and external factors influence group performance via the interaction process.” (Wittenbaum, 2004 p. 19).

Learning how to work effectively in a group situation is key to success in many professions as well as in social situations. Groups vary from each other based on the individuals that make up each group, all of us belong to various groups at one time or another. The roles that we fulfill vary from group to

Norming – during this stage the trust and respect is developing amongst the members of the group, since it becomes clear that each member has a role and they are aware of what

After working in this position for a while working in groups and introducing new group members is a key ingredient in building teams and relationships. In groups and teams, relationships are the feelings, roles, norms, statuses, and trust that both affect. They reflect the quality of communication between a person and others. The variables that have an important effect on relationships are made with others in small groups. These are the roles a person assumes, the norms or standards, the group develops, the status differences that affect the group's productivity, the power some members have, the trust that improves

A group is a set of people or things that are considered and classified together who frequently interact and mutually influence each other. Whereas each individual of a group differs greatly from one another, each member shares a common goal or expectations. Universities, for example, are groups of students who are seeking a higher education in a specific area of study. Government parties are groups of people who share certain political beliefs and seek to attain and maintain government power. Wall Street firms are comprised of highly motivated bankers who graduated from the most prestigious universities. Despite the individual differences of every member, the common goal remolds their individualism by inputting its own expectations and goals

A group should be small between five to nine persons, so that each one will be able to relate and engage every member in the group. The group is viewed as a system, the condition of any member affects the other (Fatout, 1992).

Which critical concepts sparked a connection for one or more team members and how will this information be applied in professional practice?

Group member cohesiveness was absent from the group meeting for several reasons, but the primary reasons were due to the fact that the group members did not have a common description of value or structure to the discussion. Each member viewed their own area of involvement within the organization as being more valuable than any other area, and it was this exclusion of other valuable traits that lead the group to begin to clash in such a

During our summer experience, there was some discontent in my group. When relationships did not go well, focusing on the paper and presentation was the only thing that got me through the group work. In the end, we made it, but I would have much preferred a strong emphasis on both tasks and relationships as reflected in this questionnaire.

Tuckman proposes that groups develop via five stages; forming, storming, norming, performing and finally adjourning (Archee, Gurney, & Mohan, 2013a). The first stage, known as forming, involves clarifying the task and purpose of the group, and identifying boundaries of both the task and interpersonal behaviour (Archee et al., 2013a). For the presentation task we were randomly allocated into groups. This worried me greatly as I have struggled in the past with group members who do not contribute equally or see the task as important as other group members. To avoid this problem, the group collectively determined and agreed upon a number of ground rules. For example, we decided that all group members were expected to contribute equally to the presentation, all group members were expected to attend and contribute at all group meetings, and all group members would adhere to agreed upon deadlines. Having failed to do this in previous group assignments, this clarification stage

The organization has five stages of group development. In the forming stage they have identified that there is a

A group engages in certain processes that naturally occur when a set of individuals are working together. In the Orientation phase, the needs of group members are to be oriented to the task, that is, to define the task, specify issues, identify expectations, and explore the nature of the work. From this, members develop a common understanding of the group's purpose. In the Testing and Dependency phase, participants generally act as if they depend on the leader to provide all the structure. They look to the leader to set the ground rules, establish the agenda, to do all the "leading," while the group members acclimate themselves to the setting. Group members exhibit behavior to test what behavior is acceptable and what is not, and begin to establish boundaries, to consider themselves as individuals in relation to the group, and to define the function of the group and the leader. This phase generally concludes when there is general agreement that the goals are achievable and that change is possible--whether it be changing behavior, making a decision, or solving a problem. Organizing to get work done involves a number of group decisions. These include establishing work rules, determining limits, defining the reward system, setting the criteria for the task, dividing the work and assigning individual responsibility for particular tasks. As it relates to