To Be Part of a Team

In applied social psychology, there are many components to be part of a team. This includes group roles and group norms, which tie into Tuckman’s (1965) developmental stages of groups. The developmental stages are a “life cycle” that almost every group or team goes through. These stages include forming, storming, norming, and performing.

In the forming stage, the group members are only just getting to know each other, so conversations are very casual because they have not established a bond. The members have also not established everyone’s roles in the group because they have not seen each other’s strengths or weaknesses. In the storming stage, the members have developed a more personal bond, and being to assign roles. Task roles are one of the roles that is most important in the group. Everyone is assigned to a certain task so everyone in the group splits the work, and have equal contribution. Relationship roles are also formed as the group has become more personal. This is necessary to keep the team connected, even when times get tough. They must still continue to reach their goals.

The norming stage is where the roles and norms are unconsciously established between the members. Without directly stating, the members of the group know which behaviors are appropriate because of the relationships that have formed, as well as generally observing. For example, members of a football team would know what to expect at practice after losing a big game. They would at least keep in mind that they have the other team members to get them through the tough conditioning given by the coach. Finally, the performing stage is where the group shows off their hard work. The long hours put in, as well as the relationships formed, and roles given, all pay off.

To be part of a team could be considered a gift. I have always enjoyed being part of a team because of the new relationships that are formed. Also, because everyone is working toward a common goal, it makes the time together more enjoyable. Social psychology helps us understand our interactions as a team, and what events need to occur to be a successful team.

Reference

Truman, J.A., Schneider, F.W., and Coutts, L.M. (Eds.) (2017). Applied Social Psychology: Understanding and Addressing Social and Practical Problems (3rd ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications.

5 comments

  1. Teams and leaderships roles are very interesting. A group of people often look to lean on someone to take control, guide them, and give them the answers they are looking for. Someone they can almost idolize and admire. For instance, groups of friends are often formed in schools amongst children. Most of the time these groups are common for a group of people to hang out, but there may be times where the group as a whole looks to someone as the funniest, the most athletic, the smartest, and everyone is naturally attached to them as the “leader”. Everyone wants to be around the leader because everyone likes the leader.

    Reference: Jennifer Alsever, Jessi Hempel, Alex Taylor III, and Daniel Roberts, “6 Great Teams that Take Care of Business,” Fortune, April 10, 2014, http://fortune.com/2014/04/10/6-great-teams-that-take-care-of-business/

  2. I wanted to add on to what Alexis said because I found her challenge to your blog interesting.
    I have been in these situations where no one can get along or they are mostly “followers” from what I have seen it turns into a “dictatorship”. The person with the strongest personality takes control of the situation when pushed and delegates what is needed.
    I have also been in situations where the group just didn’t mix, and essentially there was no teamwork, there was independent parties working next to each other.
    Going back to a “dictatorship” how do you propose someone would establish trust?

  3. In terms of the storming stage, it tends to be the most difficult. This is due to the fact that the storming stage begins the process of organizing and assigning roles within the group, which can create conflict. For instance,
    group members may argue due to differing viewpoints, there may be tension or upheaval over the leaders of the group, confusion over the lack of clarity about the roles, and/or fluctuation of attitudes as they may disagree with the roles (West Chester University, 2022). Either way, in order to get out of the storming stage, members must be willing to listen to each other, provide helpful feedback, resolve conflicts, and work towards establishing roles that are agreed upon and understood(West Chester University, 2022).
    West Chester University. (2022). Collaborative on-line research and learning. Tuckman’s Stages of Group Development – WCU of PA. https://www.wcupa.edu/coral/tuckmanStagesGroupDelvelopment.aspx

  4. This was a very good analysis and description of what is a good making of a team using Tuckman’s (1965) developmental stages of groups. I think a lot of people can relate this this experience of being in a team. However if there were on stage which people were to fall out in it would be storming. It has been researched that the storming stage can be most difficult as it is everyone trying to input their ideas meaning disagreements might arise from the situation (Alsever. et al. 2014). As perfect as your analysis is I believe if at any point the stages went differently they would fall off at the storming stage.

    Reference: Jennifer Alsever, Jessi Hempel, Alex Taylor III, and Daniel Roberts, “6 Great Teams that Take Care of Business,” Fortune, April 10, 2014, http://fortune.com/2014/04/10/6-great-teams-that-take-care-of-business/

  5. Alexis Hutcheson

    Your post on Tuckman’s Stages of Group Development are indeed an optimistic outlook for the ideal life cycle for group relationships. On the contrary, if a group is formed and immediately jumps to the storming phase with group conflict occurring almost immediately, what would be the best plan of action fr this?
    Sanjiv Kumar, Vaishali Deshmukh, and Vivek S Adhish authors of “Building and Leading Teams” state, “the first dysfunction [of a group with conflict] is ‘absence of trust’. Without trust neither the team can be formed nor can they achieve results.” The fear of conflict, lack of commitment, avoidance of accountability and inattention to the results were the other dysfunctions. They outline the only true fix for a group problem as severe as these, is motivation of all teeam members. They state only motivated team members can produce quality work, and work effectively together. Identifying each other’s strengths as quickly as possible will help alleviate the formation of an ideal group, as Tuckman first identified. How would you alleviate these issues?

    Reference
    Kumar, S., Deshmukh, V., & Adhish, V. S. (2014). Building and leading teams. Indian journal of community medicine : official publication of Indian Association of Preventive & Social Medicine, 39(4), 208–213. https://doi.org/10.4103/0970-0218.143020

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