Tuckman's Theory

Many studies have been accomplished on the developmental sequence in small groups, one of them is Tuckman's contribution. Tuckman(1965) reviewed fifty-five literature and suggested that the life cycle of a team involves four stages which are forming, storming, norming and performing. The first stage of Tuckman's model is forming. This stage is characterized by dependency, which means group should initially establish a relationship with leaders, other group members and preexisting standard. The second phase which is storming concerns about the conflict and polarization within the group reacting to the task sphere. Group members feel restless when they move into unknown areas of relationships between individuals and seek the secure area. Resistance is overcome in the storming stage, in-group feeling, cohesiveness development, new standard evolve and new role are involved. Performing is the final stage of the original model in which the interpersonal relationship becomes more flexible and …show more content…
First, this literature cannot be considered practical for different settings. It has been overrepresented for therapy group settings and underrepresented for training group and laboratory group settings. The second source of criticism comes from methodological problems since the conclusions carried out in different settings are based on the observations of single groups and Tuckman obtains more qualitative data than qualitative data. Additionally, the systematic manipulation of independent variables in each setting cannot be controlled, since they are likely to vary from different group composition and duration. However, Tuckman's teamwork theory provide a useful and simple way to consider about how individuals interact in team situations. It can be recognized that whether group development is normal according to his model. Then figuring out the needs to manage different aspects of team