Leaders

Leadership and Organizational Behavior

Case Study : The Forgotten Member

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

First of all, we have to take a look to these different stages and emphasize Christine’s leadership position during the stages of group development.

The forming stage in which members are positive and polite. Some members are anxious, as they haven't yet worked out exactly what work the team will involve. Others are simply excited about the task ahead. As leader, Christine plays a dominant role at this stage: other members' roles and responsibilities are less clear.

This stage is usually fairly short, and may only last for the single meeting at which people are introduced to one-another. At this stage there may be discussions about how the team will work, which can be frustrating for some members who simply want to get on with the team task.

The next stage, called Storming, is characterized by competition and conflict in the personal- relations dimension an organization in the task-functions dimension. As the group members attempt to organize for the task, conflict inevitably results in their personal relations. Individuals have to bend and mold their feelings, ideas, attitudes, and beliefs to suit the group organization. Because of "fear of exposure" or "fear of failure," there will be an increased desire for structural clarification and commitment. Although conflicts may or may not surface as group issues, they do exist. Questions will arise about who is going to be responsible for what, system is, what the rules are, what the reward and what criteria for evaluation are.

In my opinion, the group is in the storming stage for different reasons. First they still didn’t organize and discussed about who will be responsible for which part of the assignment.

Besides, the final mark would be peer evaluated. This meant that whatever mark Sandra gave them...