Stages of Group Development:
Group cannot be developed within a short duration and takes a long time to form an effective group. For a group to be effective all the members should come together and contribute for the accomplishment of group objectives. The group gets developed through various stages. These stages of development are forming, storming, norming and performing.
The stages in a group evolution are as follows:
- Forming: Forming is the initial stage of group development. There is high degree of uncertainty during this stage. This is the start of a group where there many difficulties occur as regarding framing of norms, building trust in members, designing the structure and resolving individual differences. Members decide the objectives, priorities of the group during this stage. This stage is very chaotic and every member tries to establish his identity in the group.
- Storming: All the members share their personal information and start knowing and accepting each other and start giving their attention towards objectives of the group. All members share their views and opinions openly to each other. There may be disagreement in the views of members and conflict can arise. Undue pressures hinder in the group and tensions grow between individuals as they assert themselves.
- Norming: It is the most critical and difficult stage. As the group starts moving together in a co-operative fashion and control over all the tensions and conflicts starts group members come together to work for the objectives of the group. Group starts getting organized and members begin believing one another and mutual understanding evolves. This cooperation and understanding sometimes may work against the organisation objectives or interests. If the group members fail to understand each other the group may have long term problems.
- Performing: The group members start learning and handling complex challenges. Members begin performing functional roles as needed and tasks are done effectively and accomplished. The group begins working as a well planned team and interacts freely with each other. People ignore minor differences. Group members become mature and help each other for getting better job performance.