Question

How are the three characteristics of effective teams evident in each of Tuckman's five stages of team development? Provide examples to support your response.

Answer 1

Tuckman’s five stages of development are the forming, storming, norming, performing and adjourning stage. An effective team is a group of people who can attain a high level of taskperformance, membership satisfaction and team viability. These characteristics can be played out in the five stages of team development.

In the forming stage goals are decided upon. An effective group will give strong input during the forming stage which will help with the long term task performance. When all are involved in this process and feel heard and understood they will have great member satisfaction. The team will be viable as they will be able to move forward and work together.

In the storming stage there can be unrest and a time for feelings to be hurt, people to feel unheard and hostility of members toward one another. This is the ultimate make or break stage of forming a group. Even though a team may end up being effective in the long run, it does not mean that there may not be a storming phase in that group. This is a great timeto allow people to share their thoughts and feelings and be heard. If people feel like their participation will not be accepted or there are problems socially between members of the group, there will become a great dissatisfaction among the members. An effective team will hear out the members of the group to ultimately achieve task performance and to bringabout the member satisfaction. In the end a group who works through the storming phase will have a better chance of team viability.

The norming stage is when the group becomes coordinated to perform the task at hand. After the storming phase has passed the norming phase should be a time of harmony and cooperation. It is during this time that task performance, member satisfaction and team viability should all feel attainable and on track.

The performing stage is when the group is ready to tackle difficult situations and work together as a team. This is when task performance is happening. The group is meeting goals or production targets. The member satisfaction is high because everyone feels a partof the participation and feels they are working well together as a group. Team viability is established and the group wants to continue working together for current and future projects.

The adjourning stage is the time when the group is disbanded because the work is accomplished. If all the other stages of the group have gone well and the characteristics of an effective team have been fulfilled, the adjourning stage is the team’s willingness to separate and come back together at a future time to work together again, if needed. An effective team will have had great task performance at this point and will have outputted what was needed.