Gm591- Leadership and Organizational Behavior

Case Study: The Forgotten Group Member

Jacob Rosenberg

Keller Graduate School of Management

Author Note

This paper was prepared for GM591- Leadership and Organizational Behavior taught by Professor Brett Gordon.

17 Jan 2012

Table of Contents

Group Development 3

Identify and Summarize the Stages of Group Development 3

Problem Identification 4

Primary Problem 4

Secondary Problem 4

Retrospective Evaluation 4

Reflection 5

References 6

The Forgotten Group Member

Group Development

Identify and Summarize the Stages of Group Development

During the review of the case study, “The Forgotten Group Member” there is subtle hints that the overall group appears to be cohesive and well functioning, which would suggest this group is in the “Norming Stage”. However, there has been two occasions, one specifically where Mike refused to join the group during lunch where he assumed a meeting was occurring without his knowledge. Mike’s response contained verbiage that caused tension and angst among the group, which would suggest this group is really in the “Storming phase”. Considering all the facts and provided this group has been working on their case study collectively for five weeks, suggest this group is really in the “norming stage”. The case study even suggest at week 3 the members of the team were joking with one another in the class, which also suggest that all but Mike has reached the “norming stage”.

My decision to indicate this group is in the “norming stage” is supported by the performance difficulties due to diversity issues called “diversity –consensus dilemma” and is more pronounced in the critical zone of the storming and norming stages of team development (Schermerhorn, 2010). For example, Mike appears to have specific personal issues that are inhibiting him from being successful with this project, such as demographics and values. It appears by the hand written notes and barely able to make class on time, suggest Mike needs to...