Organizational Culture Five Stages of Group Development

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Organizational Culture

1. How do you think the five stages of group development (forming, storming, norming, performing, adjourning) will be different for virtual teams as compared to traditional teams? Discuss in regard to all five stages of group development.

In reference to virtual teams, the forming stage is more difficult because the group members don't get a formal chance to actually meet and greet. Therefore, the traditional ability to gain a rapport with a group member is required to occur online, and this can be more problematic as humans are social creatures who usually need in-person stimulus to develop closer relationships. In regard to online forming, the group members will have to rely upon messages and posts to develop this rapport. Storming is especially problematic for virtual teams because there is a greater propensity for differences in time, work habits, etc. These differences can become overly exaggerated if team members are not in unison and have a personal relationship with team members, which is hard to cultivate through virtual teams. Therefore, storming is heavily impacted by the lack of physical interaction from group members as it can exacerbate common issues that occur during this stage.

Norming can be made more difficult if the storming period was particularly critical and destructive as it would be more challenging to establish a normal group cohesive unit. Nevertheless, as long as group members are attentive and able to complete their tasks, other members will gain a respect for their talents and the group can develop into its normal rhythm. The performing stage is not much different as team members will need to possess the capability to perform whether online in virtual teams or in traditional teams. Those who can't perform, must be replaced, but as long as the group's core unit is intact, new ...