How do groups form, develop and become cohesive, and what makes a team perform better than the sum of its members?
Explain how groups form and develop, the factors that build cohesion, and the social processes that influence group performance.
How groups form and develop through stages, the factors that build task and social cohesion, and social processes such as social loafing and the Ringelmann effect that shape group performance.
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What this dot point is asking
You must explain how groups form and develop, the factors that build cohesion, and the social processes that raise or lower group performance.
Stages of group development (Tuckman)
Groups commonly move through four stages:
- Forming: members meet, are polite and dependent on a leader, and roles are unclear.
- Storming: conflict emerges as members compete for roles and challenge ideas.
- Norming: the group settles, agrees on roles, norms and standards, and cohesion grows.
- Performing: the group functions effectively toward its goal with shared understanding and trust.
Factors that build cohesion
- Shared, clear goals that everyone commits to.
- Defined roles so each member knows their contribution.
- Communication and trust built through time together and shared experience.
- Group size: smaller groups generally cohere more easily.
- Success: winning builds cohesion, and cohesion in turn supports performance, creating a positive cycle.
- Stability: consistent membership lets relationships and understanding develop.
Social processes that affect performance
- Social loafing: individuals reduce effort in a group because their contribution is less identifiable than when alone. It lowers the group's actual productivity.
- The Ringelmann effect: as group size increases, average individual effort tends to decrease, so a group's performance is less than the sum of its members' potential.
- Faulty group processes: poor coordination and communication losses mean a team rarely reaches its full potential productivity.
Steiner's model captures this: actual productivity equals potential productivity minus losses due to faulty processes (poor coordination and motivation losses such as social loafing).
Reducing losses and building cohesion
Coaches counter these losses by making individual contributions identifiable (statistics, roles), setting individual within-team goals, emphasising each member's importance, building communication and trust, and keeping roles clear. These strategies raise motivation and coordination so actual performance moves closer to the team's potential.