We’ve been working in groups in my Talent
Management class. Group work… Why do they call it group work? Invariably,
there’s at least one (or in the case of this semester) two people who
contribute absolutely nothing to the assignment. I do want to give a big thank
you to my partner, Anica, for being so great about helping split the load with
me. We two have been doing the work of four this semester – thanks, Anica!
So, while in my last class I blogged a little about
Tuckman's model of team development and how it applies to group work.
The theory behind Tuckman’s model is that groups go
through stages when they work together – Forming (coming together), Storming
(disagreements begin to arise as power struggles begin), Norming (acceptable
behavior is determined), Performing (finally working together to accomplish
task) and Adjourning (completion of task and disengagement from the group).
(Tuckman & Jensen, 1977, p. 419-420).
This week my assignment is to think about Tuckman’s
model and how it applies to my group in the class. Did my group experience all
five of the stages? Trust me, if the two guys had checked in there would have
been some storming! LOL
But I don’t think Anica and I experienced that at
all. I think we worked really well together. We had similar styles. So we really
just got together (Forming), split up the workload, which I think we both
agreed on and had a similar idea how to approach that (Norming) and then we
went to work (Performing). I checked our group discussion board today and we
both expressed how we enjoyed working together, so even though the final
project still needs to be put together, we’ve pretty much already reached the Adjourning
stage.
Of course I wish we had all group members
participating. But if I could get stuck in another group with only one other
person carrying their weight, I hope it would be with her again!
References
Tuckman, B. W., & Jensen, M. A. C. (1977). Stages of
small-group development revisited. Group and Organization Studies
(pre-1986), 2(4), 419-427.
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