What Is Tuckman's Five Stage Theory Of Group Development

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,

The forming stage is characterized by dependency, and need for acceptance and guidance. In this stage the "meet and greet" is done. During the meet and greet each member gathers information that will determine the strength of potential relationships amongst group members, as well as establish group hierarchy. Generally, in this stage the leader of group is selected. The group leader has a tendency to be someone that is viewed as stable and

Bruce Tuckman suggests that there are four stages of team development; Forming, Storming, Norming and Performing. At the forming stage, the team needs to mature and allow relationships to establish. Everyone’s position is currently unclear so the leader must be ready to answer questions and give a lot of guidance. The storming stage is where goals need to be set. At this stage each team member is trying to establish themselves within the group however this can cause friction and power struggles. Emotional issues need to be ignored in order to achieve goals. At the norming stage, the team members are clear on what their role within the group contains. They’ve gained respect for their leader and other members in the group and make decisions together.

Remember the Titans movie presents an opportunity to look at the development stages of leadership over the course of a season. The movie takes place at a high school in Virginia in 1971. The school replaces its current Caucasian football coach – Bill Yoast with an African American coach – Herman Boone. Herman Boone as the head coach and Bill Yoast as the assistant coach form a successful football team through struggles and racial issues between team members and the people of the town they lived in.

This paper will discuss the key constructs of Tuckman’s theory of Group Development, Social Identity theory, and Systems theory, theories that could provide a framework for research in the field of human services – multidisciplinary services. First, the paper will provide a brief summary of the school-approved dissertation topic; “How do foster parents describe the experiences and engagement in family partnership meetings and permanency planning?” Then it will discuss the relationship between theory and research, how research contribution to theory, and the practical application of theory. Next, the paper will compare and contrast each leading to a scholarly rationale for which theory is most aligned with the school-approved research topic.

A useful theory to explain our processes and development as a group is Tuckman’s theory of group working which explains the stages that a group will progress through in order to achieve an objective, including the Forming, Storming, Norming, Performing and Adjourning stages (Mindtools, 2016). The forming stage was pre-established for our group because we had been allocated together prior to the task and we had already managed to build relationships with one another. It was at the storming stage we began to establish our roles within the group and allocate tasks for

The Tuckman Model of Group Development has 5 stages: Forming, Storming, Norming, and Adjourning (Maples, 2008). During the first session of MOP, everyone was tasked with forming their own small project team. The very first class workshop activity involved meeting two new people and introducing one of them to the entire class. The aim of the activity was to indirectly assess who we would want to be in a team with, based on our perceptions of a person’s behaviour, values, and work ethic. Most people would want to be in a team with people similar to them on a surface level (age, gender, ethnicity) and on a deeper level (personality, attitudes, believes, values) (Liang, Shih, & Chiang, 2015). We were free to choose whoever we wanted in our team under the condition that the team we form is diverse.

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.

The five stages of group/team development are: forming, storming, norming, performing and adjourning. In the forming stage, the group members get aquainted with one another and figure out what the goals of the group are. In the storming stage, individual personalities within the group emerge and group members start to figure out what their roles will be. In the norming stage, the group begins to find unity and group members resolve their differences. In the performing stage, the group members solve problems and focus on completing their assigned task. In the adjourning stage, the group begins to disband and the members transition out and into other projects.

The five stages of developing groups is an important part of the position. In many cases it is the relationships that a person will have with other individuals who will determine the best members to put into the different groups. As well, the different skill sets that individuals have are also an important part in placing group members together. The observation of the first groups placed together will be a good gauge in learning how some of the individuals work and observing how others work well together. The group size should be eight to 10 people to facilitate greater ease of equal participation among the individuals.

Using Tuckman’s (1965) model of group development, our first session can be considered as our “forming stage.” This was on the basis that it involved introducing ourselves to one another and to quote Price (2001): “we created and negotiated an

In a previous class, we learned about a theory on group dynamics called the Tuckman stages. This theory states that in order for a team to effectively produce at its highest potential, there are four phases that are indispensable and unavoidable. Without giving attention to these phases, Tuckman believed that most teams would concentrate almost solely on content and virtually ignore the process, explaining why outwardly strong teams produce underwhelming results. Summarizing these four phases, Tuckman named them forming, storming, norming and performing. While reflecting on the dynamic for my most recent group collaboration project for this class, it is helpful to consider the Tuckman phrases and whether or not they were

The Performing stage was the last stage of Bruce Tuckman's four stages of group development until the 70's when Tuckman felt the importance to create an additional fifth stage to his model the "adjourning" which became the last stage. A group (shift) reaches the performing when all it members solves the conflict in the Norming stage therefore had establish the norms of the group and the members are operate as one. Thus, the group identity is finalized, in our experience it was a unique one.

In the five-stage process of group development it is in the norming stage that the group is able to control the behavior of its members. In this phase, the third phase, member start to feel as if though they belong and individual ties are made. Out of this comes a sense of direction for the group and they begin to create rules for moving forward.

During the forming stage, the group takes considerable direction from the group’s leader, as the roles of the other team members are yet to be defined. Members of this group have their guard up, are on their best behavior and/or feeling anxious or nervous.