Group Development

Groups’ development dimensions

Purpose

Although groups typically formed around a purpose or an objective, by time group members looses focus and tend to have personal objectives.

Group primary and stated objective might not be the main reason for gathering by time. An example is a group founded to support a certain disease patients and then they socially gathered because of shared values.

Workgroups who loses focus of the main objective are most likely less productive.

Authority

It is very important and critical to any group to elect a leader or manager.

Some groups tend to have centralized control or authority in the form of the protector who is the most dominant member when it comes to protecting group objectives and shared values.

Other groups select multiple authorities according to the task and the skills required to do the task.

Managers who are in need of control and cannot manage decentralization lead to group failure to achieve its objectives especially with members who are learned in decentralized authority group.

Membership worthiness

Group members tend to reassess their worthiness in the group compared to other members.

Here is the authority issue arise again. If group members feel unworthy they most likely will not contribute and participate to the group objectives.

They will withdraw and such withdrawal can hinder group effectiveness.

Examples might include high employee turnover rates in one-man-show organizations.

Social standing

Most commonly to see social standing and status outside the group determine authority and worthiness inside the group.

It is important to have group members with shared values and common ground.

It is also important to know that humans tend to compare themselves with other group members.

Ground rule development

Groups tend to develop ground rules or norms. These ground rules are commonly accepted behaviors within groups.

In large groups, smaller groups might exist and constitute a different ground rule that will hinder large group performance.

Participation

Participation patterns depend greatly on the leader’s authority model.

Leaders’ focused groups all have participation that relates to leader in most cases. On the contrary distributed authority model leads to distributed patterns.

Pace

Each group determines and develops a certain pace towards taking decisions.

Work

Groups’ development stages

Stage Most observable characteristics Tasks Problems Management implications

Initiation - Frequent questions about objectives

- Queries about authority of the leader

- Participation pattern tend to relate to leader

- Everyone is silent and cautious waiting to form leader authority and agree on common values and shared ground rules - Main task is to define the authority level and define the objectives and share the some ground rules - Pressure from group members towards moving to goals before resolving conflicts about objectives, authorities and common ground rules.

- No process for decision making is yet there - Manager must press each member to discuss, clarify and focus on the purpose and goals.

- Manager must assure that there is no doubt the objective and purpose of the group is clear and accepted by members

Exploration - Groups enter this stage with tentative set of goals, tentative authority structure and tentative operating procedures

- Testing phase for leaders, objectives

- Testing phase for tasks and procedures

- Testing phase for worthiness

- The group is very innovative Group member devotes time and effort to explore difference and worthiness - Different feeling of worthiness will impact members efforts and participation level

- Huge conflict and challenges over ideas and methodologies

- Group need accurate information about themselves to select candidates for tasks

- Struggle to Managers should have patience dealing with testing

They should always re-clarify, reassure and re-explain objectives, process.

Provide data about members contribution and performance