Group Development
Groups’ development dimensions
Purpose
Although groups typically formed around a purpose or an objective, by time group members looses focus and tend to have personal objectives.
Group primary and stated objective might not be the main reason for gathering by time. An example is a group founded to support a certain disease patients and then they socially gathered because of shared values.
Workgroups who loses focus of the main objective are most likely less productive.
Authority
It is very important and critical to any group to elect a leader or manager.
Some groups tend to have centralized control or authority in the form of the protector who is the most dominant member when it comes to protecting group objectives and shared values.
Other groups select multiple authorities according to the task and the skills required to do the task.
Managers who are in need of control and cannot manage decentralization lead to group failure to achieve its objectives especially with members who are learned in decentralized authority group.
Membership worthiness
Group members tend to reassess their worthiness in the group compared to other members.
Here is the authority issue arise again. If group members feel unworthy they most likely will not contribute and participate to the group objectives.
They will withdraw and such withdrawal can hinder group effectiveness.
Examples might include high employee turnover rates in one-man-show organizations.
Social standing
Most commonly to see social standing and status outside the group determine authority and worthiness inside the group.
It is important to have group members with shared values and common ground.
It is also important to know that humans tend to compare themselves with other group members.
Ground rule development
Groups tend to develop ground rules or norms. These ground rules are...
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