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The Forgotten Group Member

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The Forgotten Group Member

Group Development
Working in a group to achieve a high quality group project can be one of people’s most difficult school experiences. Working in a group is tough because there is often someone who does not pull their own weight. “There are five stages to group development, adjourning, forming, storming, performing, and norming” (John & Wiley pg 166). Christine’s group from the Case Study the Forgotten Group Member is in between the Storming and Norming Stages. The Storming Stage “is dealing with tensions and defining group tasks,” while the Norming Stage is dealing with high emotionality and tension among the group members” (John & Wiley pg. 166). Christine and her group could have had better success in creating a solid group paper if she would have focused more on the forming stage at the beginning of their relationship.
The forming stage happens “in the initial entry into the group,” during this stage individuals ask a number of questions as they begin to identify with other group members and with the team itself” (John & Wiley pg 166). Group member Mike was the black sheep of the group. He did not complete his assigned tasks and missed group meetings because of work and personal issues. Christine became frusterated because of his absences and his incomplete work. In the beginning meetings of the group, Christine and other groups members could have asked the questions during the forming stage like “What are the potential barriers that will keep us from finishing our individual tasks?” or “How are we going to hold each other accountable?” These questions might have allowed Mike to let the group know ahead of time that he also had a job where he might have to work the same hours as the group was planning to meet. If Christine had known ahead of time either to try and schedule around his work schedule or it would not have been a shock if Mike got scheduled to work during a meeting.
Problem Identification
One major problem group member Mike struggled was Social Loafing. “Social Loafing is the tendency of people to work less hard in a group setting than they would work individually” (John & Wiley pg 164). Mike was not working to his full potential, because he couldn’t even make it to some of the group meetings. He obviously had other priorities and didn’t have a sense of urgency to complete his assigned individual work. His Social Loafing could have possible been reversed if it was identified in the beginning stages of the group.
The secondary problem or trait group member Mike faced was “Social Facilitation or the tendancy for one’s behavior to be influenced by the presence of others in the group” (John & Wiley pg164). The first time the group met, Mike cracked a joke about the meeting time. Mike felt the need to be the class clown. He was influenced by their presence and felt the need to turn the focus off the project at hand and onto himself. Christine is struggling with his behavior when he is in group situations.
If Christine would have understood and used the FIRO-B Theory she may have been able to help Mike feel included and accomplish his work. The theory states “examines differences in how people relate to one another based on their needs to express and receive feelings of inclusion, control and affection” (John & Wiley pg 171). Mike may have been feeling excluded, especially after he saw his group eating together in the cafeteria. She may want to try speaking with him individually, explaining again that the group just happened to all be in the cafeteria at the same time and were not excluding him.

Retrospective Evaluation
There is no one perfect solution to solve this group problem. One possible solution might be for the group leader, Christine to understand the Group Dynamics or “forces operating in teams that affects the ways team members work together” (John & Wiley pg 173). There were clearly forces that were affecting Mike and that is why he was not completing his work and playing class clown when the group was trying to complete tasks. If Christine had the group speak about their expectations (accountability) in the Forming stage of the group than she might not have had to deal with the Storming Stage and combating the tensions in the group throughout all stages. If these steps were followed the group may have been able to go straight from the Forming Stage to the Norming Stage, bypassing the tension stage.
Another possible solution was for Mike and Christine to focus on their required and emergent behaviors. Required behaviors are “those formally defined and expected by the team” (John & Wiley pg 173). Emergent behaviors are “those that team members display in addition to any requirements” (John & Wiley pg 173). Mike was missing the required behaviors and Christine the emergent behaviors. Mike didn’t have the required behaviors like punctuality. He continually missed scheduled meeting times or came late. Christine needed to reach out to Mike either by “taking the time to send an email message to an absent member to keep him informed about what happened during a group meeting” (John & Wiley pg 174). If Christine took the time to do such actions, the inclusion could have made Mike feel like a respected member of the group and therefore made him more involved.
Reflection
Overall, Christine was not an affective group leader. The team had an end goal of completing a group project and that was not getting accomplished. Christine was not an effective group leader, however if she incorporates the two learned practices of Group Dynamics and/or Required and Emergent behaviors she may have time o turn the group around.

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