Applying Tuckmans model for team development
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Abstract
A team can be defined as a group of individuals who work together to achieve a common goal. This is defined by Professor Thomson of the Kellog School of management as he states that “[a] team is a group of people who are interdependent with respect to information, resources, knowledge and skills and who seek to combine their efforts to achieve a common goal" ".[1].
This definition makes a team quite different from a group. An example of a team is a football team is a team working together towards a common goal. It is individuals who are interdependent, this means that the work needs to be a joint effort and synergy effects emerge. Whereas groups are independent individuals who are put together, here they interact and exchange information to achieve a particular goal, this has been defined by Robbins and Judge (2009). 2. [2]. Here it is clear who did what part of the project and the result is the sum of the work of each individual.
When a team is formed it goes through a maturity stage which can be described with the Tuckman’s model, also known as the “Form-Storm-Norm-Perform" (FNSP)-model which was introduced and determined in 1956 [3].
Tuckman’s model can be applied to crack the code of understanding how teams behave and what to expect during the process before they can reach a high-level performance and until the end where they reach their common goal. Teamwork is not something that can be forced, it needs time to evolve, to get to its full potential. This can only be done by letting the team members get to know each other and go from strangers to co-workers, which makes the work more effective at the end, due to mutual understanding and respect.
