The Forgotten Group Member

The Forgotten Group Member

1. How could an understanding of the stages of group development assist Christine in leadership situations such as this one?

Group work in this case is not effective. A group is defined by the text as a collection of people with a common goal who work together and hold one another liable for attainment of their goal. Christine’s group is very diverse, as evidenced by the various personality traits described in the case, which means that they will more than likely have their fair share of work ahead of them if they want to create an effective team. An effective team is one with high performance, one whose members feel that their contribution and experience is positive and meaningful, and one whose members would be willing and happy to continue working together even after their assignment is complete. In order to become an effective team, members need to go through the stages of team development, which include: forming, norming, storming, performing and adjourning.

The forming stage is where the group initially meets, begins to get to know one another, and begins to set standards of behavior. This potion of team development was completed as evidenced by Christine’s description of her team mates and by making suggestions and trying to set a direction for the group. The storming stage is when the team members being to hash out differences and membership expectations are clarified. In this stage the team is beginning to look for ways to accomplish their goals and satisfy member needs. Unfortunately, Christine did not seem to have her team go through the storming stage. She should have addressed the issue of Mike not showing up to meetings and not having his portion of the work completed as soon as he started displaying these behaviors. Instead she let it snowball to the point where now Mike is displaying disruptive behaviors and social loafing. Disruptive behaviors are defined as behaviors that inhibit team performance, Mike is acting...