Groups And Teams

Groups and Teams Paper

Groups. Teams. High-performance teams. What is a group? "A group is a collection of people who interact with one another regularly to attain common goals" (Schermerhorn, Hunt & Osborn, 2005). Over the years, groups have helped organizations achieve important tasks. They have also been resourceful of helping the members of organization to improve task performance and experience more satisfaction with their work. Groups are good for people, can improve creativity, can make better decisions, can increase commitments to action, help control organization members, and help offset a large organization size (Schermerhorn, Hunt & Osborn, 2005). Therefore, with all this positivity from a group, a group can form into a high-performance team through several stages and the actions of an effective manager.

Groups and Teams

What is a team? "A team is a small group of people with complementary skills who work actively together to achieve a common purpose for which they hold themselves collectively accountable" (Schermerhorn, Hunt & Osborn, 2005). Everyone knows that two heads are better than one. With synergy, goals can be effectively accomplished for a team. Synergy (2002) is "the interaction of two or more agents or forces so that their combined effect is greater than the sum of their individual effect." Thus, teamwork (Scarnati, 2001, p. 5) is a synergetic process:

A team is a formal work group consisting of people who work together intensely to achieve a common group goal. The essence of teamwork is to create a product through collective effort that exceeds the quality of any individual endeavor or the collective efforts of several individuals. The word team is not synonymous with group. A group is a collection of people who may or may not be working collectively toward the same goal. A team is composed of three or more interdependent individuals who are consciously striving to work together to achieve a common objective, which in business tends to encompass improvements in products, services, or processes. A group becomes a team when members demonstrate a commitment to each other and to the end goal toward which they are working. In a team, there is a higher degree of cohesiveness and accomplishment than a group (Dejanasz, et al, 2001, p.310).

Stages of Group Development

There are certain steps individuals must take to form a group on becoming a successful team. A group goes through the team development stages in order to become a team: forming, storming, norming, performing, and adjourning (Dejanasz, et al, 2001, p. 315). In the first stage, forming, a team is established to accomplish a certain task. Team selection is part of this stage. The suggested size of a team is small: five to seven members. In addition, selection is also based on skills and experiences.

The second stage is storming. In this stage, there will be different perceptions or attitudes among team members about how projects can be completed (Dejanasz, et al, 2001, p. 315). Everyone have different views on the same issue. Some conflicts and hostility arises concerning roles, responsibilities, and especially the amount of workload during the storming stage (Schermerhorn, Hunt & Osborn, 2005). To resolve this chaos and create order, open communication is needed to improve communication and commitments to the group's mission. Each member of a group must understand one another interpersonal styles and put forth effort to find the necessary ways to achieve group goals in addition to satisfying individual needs (Schermerhorn, Hunt & Osborn, 2005). This progresses to the norming stage.

The group members are overtly faced with their struggles, issues and conflict in the third stage: the norming stage (Dejanasz, et al, 2001, p. 315). They are more coordinated with one another in the norming stage. In the norming stage, uncertainties for one another became realizations. When they resolve the issues from the storming stage, group members will strive to maintain a positive attitude in the harmonious environment (Schermerhorn, Hunt & Osborn, 2005).

The fourth stage of group development is the performing stage. In this stage, the group is mature, understanding, organized and well functioned. The "membership is stable, the task is clear, and eyes are on the prize" (Dejanasz, et al, 2001, p. 315). Members usually know about each other's weaknesses and strengths. They give and accept constructive criticism openly and realized that the negative and positive feedbacks are intended to help, not hurt any of us (Dejanasz, et al, 2001, p. 316). This openness made us extremely motivated to accomplish our purpose and goals. In addition, members are highly encouraged to support each other to continue the progression.

At the last stage, adjourning, the team successfully completed the mission that causes the team to separate permanently or temporarily (Dejanasz, et al, 2001, p 316). Whether the experience was positive or negative, members may feel dissatisfaction. "The task at this stage is to tie up loose ends and complete final follow-up on projects (Dejanasz, et al, 2001, p 316)." At this end stage, the team members are advised to converse about the lessons learned. To continue momentum and motivation, encouragement needs to be provided and accomplishments must be recognized.

Groups Becoming High-Performance Teams

For groups to move through these five stages as they evolve into a team is healthy (Dejanasz, et al, 2001, p. 316). In order to create and maintain high-performance teams, all of the various elements of group effectiveness must be addressed and successfully managed. "An effective group is one that achieves high levels of task performance, member satisfaction, and team viability" (Schermerhorn, Hunt & Osborn, 2005). Effective manager needs to communicate high-performance standards for a team and set a tone in the very first team meeting. Teams need a guided map of the steps towards success to become a high-performance team. They have to effectively communicate with the team of the rules of behavior and expected behaviors. Therefore, the manager or leader must be the role model for the specific behavior that is desired (Schermerhorn, Hunt & Osborn, 2005). .

In addition, the manager must have the members spend time together. When the member learn each other's personalities, strengths, and weaknesses, then the team will know who can perform a specific task. As the team works together, the effective manager should give positive feedback and reward high performance. The team member must remain motivated to accomplish