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Tuckman's Model

Decent Essays

Introduction 50 years have passed since the Tuckman's classical model of Small Group Development was presented to the world. Tuckman’s model has become "the most predominantly referred to and most widely recognized in organizational literature (Miller, 2003, p. 122)" (Bonebright, 2010, p. 111). Established by Bruce W. Tuckman in 1965 and revised by Tuckman and Jensen in 1977, the model presents the well- known stages of forming, storming, norming, performing, and adjourning. Most of the highly qualified specialists who work as a third party in the resolution of conflicts, building peace and ending or prevention the conflicts in already formed organizations, often themselves belong to a particular organizational context as a members of their …show more content…

“In 1965, Bruce W. Tuckman published a literature review-based article entitled Developmental Sequence in Small Groups. The article focused on two realms of group development: interpersonal relationships and task activity. He hypothesized a four stage model in which each stage needed to be successfully navigated in order to reach effective group functioning” (Bonebright, 2010, p. 113). Forming. The beginning phase of the model is dependence and testing. In this stage, the group creates ground rules, becomes oriented to the task, and tests the boundaries for interpersonal and task behaviour. At the time group members create relationship with each other and with leader. Storming. The second phase represents a time period of group and intergroup conflicts. This stage is characterized by divergence around interpersonal issues and lack of unity. Team members seek to retain security, resist moving into unknown areas of interpersonal relations. Tuckman wrote: “the group members become hostile toward one another and toward a therapist or trainer as a means of expressing their individuality and resisting the formation of group structure” (Tuckman, 1965, p. 386). In the stage, team members have an emotional response to the targets, particularly when goals are related with self-change and self-understanding. Emotional reactions may be less visible in groups working toward depersonalised and intellectual problems, but resistance may still be …show more content…

In the third stage, the group develops solidarity. Team members understand each other’s trait and express personal opinions. In this phase norms and roles are established. “Neuman and Wright (1999) described this as a stage of developing shared mental models and discovering the most effective ways to work with each other” (Bonebright, 2010, p. 114). Tuckman (1965) stated that in this phase, the team becomes an entity because members develop in-group feeling and seek to maintain and immortalize the group as a result the conflicts are avoided for effort to ensure

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