Interoffice Memorandum

INTEROFFICE MEMORANDUM

TO: UPCOMING MANAGER

FROM: TEAM A

SUBJECT: GROUP COMMUNICATION

DATE: 5/18/2011

Congratulations on your recent change in position to manager. To help with introduction to your new teammates, I would just like to take the time to give some key areas that I found in my experience to be very helpful. Feel free to use them as you like or you may seek to try another avenue. If you should have any questions or need assistance please feel free to let me know.

5 Stages of a group development

When we talk about the five stages of a group development, we are talking about how individuals can come together and form a group to work for the same purpose and particular objectives. These groups can be an informal, that means that the groups are not formally structured or organizationally determine and the groups are those that satisfying the members social needs. On the contrary the formal groups are those that have organization structure, with designated work, or established tasks. The text (S.P. Robins and T.A. Judge (Organizational Behavior, 2007) said that groups generally pass through a standardized sequence in their evolution and this evolution call as the 5 stage model group development.

First Stage - Forming

The first stage is where the members are formed and the testing of behaviors is accepted. None of the members know how the group will work together. In the group everybody act as an individual they don't have yet the sense of group. As soon as these individuals think that they are a part of the group this stage is complete.

Second Stage - Storming

The second stage is where the member knows that they are part of the group, and they are accepted. However, there is a resistance between them because the restriction that the group imposes individuality. Conflicts become in this stage about who will control the group, that why this is call the storming stage. When the members decide who will be the leader this stage will be complete and everyone know clearly the hierarchy of leadership in the group.

Third Stage - Norming

In the third stage is when the members start developing relationships and they help each other. At this point we can see clearly that people need time to develop relationships and share each other feeling and trust. This is the norming stage, and in this stage the members have the sense of identity within the group, now they know the purposes and the objectives of the group, I can understand that this is the stage that things become normal and everybody is set up. It is here where they have assimilated the expectation about what defines the correct behavior within the members, how they have to work as a group and the structure is solidified.

Fourth Stage - Performing

In the performing stage every member is working in the same direction. Everybody is performing accordingly with the purpose, structure and leadership, here is where the members are completely formed and the structure is completely functional. When the people form a relationship in a group, the communication is more efficacy and we can see the four major functions, control, motivation, emotional expression and information as we can find on the text Organizational Behavior, Twenty Edition, by Stephen P. Robins and Timothy A Judge.

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