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1) Introduction
The purpose of this report is to reflect on my team working experience and to critically review the events of this experience. Throughout the process I kept a diary of events which I will be analysing in conjunction with Tuckman and Jensen’s (1977) model on stages of group development, these are: forming, storming, norming, preforming and adjourning.
2) Reflection on teamwork
Tuckman and Jensen (1977) explain that the group begins forming when they first come together. Our group began to form when we discovered the identity of whom we would be working with and we engaged in conversation for the first time. During our first conversation we introduced ourselves and discussed our preferred team roles using Belbin’s (1981) model.
I believe we formed as a team rather than a group. Boddy (2011) suggests that the terms ‘team’ and ‘group’ can be used interchangeably, however Schein (1965, via Cantore, 2013) argues that some teams have three characteristics which groups do not possess. These characteristics are interdependence, mutually shared goals and synergy. Our team had the collective goal of delivering the presentation to a high standard and we relied on each other to achieve this goal, however whether or not we possessed synergy is questionable.
The next stage of our group development was ‘storming’ where differences in opinion begin to arise (Tuckman and Jensen, 1977). The main issue we faced at this stage was contrasting opinions on what topic should be chosen as we could not find an area which all group members were satisfied with. In order to resolve this problem I suggested the group should have a vote on which topics we would be happy to work on, four of our six members voted for the same topic, and the two...

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...ndly, group performance can be hindered by social loathing and groupthink, however these problems can be overcome by openly discussing these issues. Finally, groups pass through different stages of development and it is unlikely that groups will perform well initially.

Works Cited

Belbin, R. (1981) Management teams: why they succeed or fail, Elsevier, London
Janis, I. L. (1972). Victims of groupthink; a psychological study of foreign-policy decisions and fiascoes. Boston: Houghton, Mifflin.
Tuckman, B W and Jensen, M A C (1977) Stages of small-group development revisited, Group and Organizational Management
Boddy, D. (2011). Management: An Introduction, 5th ed. Prentice-Hall, pp. 514-539
Cantore, S. 2013. Groups, Teams and Conflict. Lecture notes distributed to MANG1005 the Individual and the Organisation at the University of Southampton, December 2nd 2013