SLC 300 (601) Fall 2024 Leading with an Ethical Perspective

Integrating two distinct universities posed the challenge of establishing a standardized academic workload management system for nursing faculty. Tuckman’s model of small-group development was employed to analyze the processes and effectiveness of a project team assigned to tackle this issue. Through a comprehensive review of agendas, notes, and meeting minutes, the study sheds light on the obstacles encountered and the strategies employed to overcome them. The successful utilization of a team charter emerged as a pivotal tool, significantly transforming a diverse group into a highly productive team. The insights gained from this study are crucial in understanding the intricacy of guiding diverse teams and the significance of Tuckman’s framework in understanding group dynamics.

The analysis brought to light several challenges, encompassing varying expectations and communication barriers. The study implemented a team charter that was found to be crucial in aligning goals and establishing clear roles, thus facilitating the transition from the storming to the norming phase.

Effectively managing a diverse team to achieve high productivity is inherently complex due to the different backgrounds, perspectives, and work styles involved. Tuckman’s model, which outlines the stages of group development, provides a framework for understanding and enhancing the dynamics and processes within the team. This study underscores the critical importance of structured approaches, such as team charters, in managing the development of a team. Team charters establish a clear framework for decision-making, roles and responsibilities, communication protocols, and conflict-resolution processes, which are essential for fostering a productive team environment.

References

Natvig, D., & Stark, N. L. (2016). A project team analysis using Tuckman’s model of small-group development. *Journal of Nursing Education, 55*(12), 675-681.

David J. Glew’s research delves into the intricate correlation between personal values and performance at both individual and team levels. The study encompassed two cohorts: 107 undergraduate teams and an additional 54 MBA teams. Its primary objective was to discern the impact of personal values on team dynamics and overall outcomes.

The study uncovered a counterintuitive finding at the individual level: valuing a sense of accomplishment was negatively associated with peer-evaluated performance within teams. The study revealed that past individual performance outside of the team context demonstrated a stronger positive relationship with performance within teams, indicating that past experiences and achievements may better prepare individuals for effective teamwork, irrespective of their values.

At the team level, the study highlighted the crucial role of the value of equality. Teams where members collectively valued equality demonstrated improved performance. The study also found that the emphasis on equality was a more significant predictor of team success than the aggregate prior performance of team members, emphasizing the importance of shared values in achieving team goals.

These findings have implications for both organizational behavior and team management. They also open up exciting avenues for future research. Investigating other values that might impact team performance and how these interact with team composition and context could offer further insights into optimizing team effectiveness.

Glew’s study contributes to a better understanding of the role of personal values in team settings, offering valuable guidelines for enhancing team performance through value alignment.

Reference:

Glew, D. J. (2024). Personal values and performance in teams: An individual and team-level analysis. *Journal of Team Dynamics*, 15(3), 45-67.

Jaffe and Scott explore the challenges and resolutions in aligning personal values with team or organizational values, using companies like Levi Strauss, AT&T, and Nordstrom as case studies. The authors emphasize the importance of holding values discussions as a foundational step toward resolving conflicts between individual and collective values. These discussions lead to behaviors that embody the desired values and foster a strong commitment to organizational goals.

The article emphasizes the role of open dialogues in successful companies, as they clarify shared goals and empower employees to express their values within the organizational context. This alignment creates a cohesive work environment where personal and organizational values are respected and integrated.

Key Strategies

Values Discussions: Facilitating open conversations about personal and team values helps identify common ground and address potential conflicts.

Behavioral Alignment: Encouraging behaviors that reflect shared values ensures that employees’ actions are consistent with personal beliefs and organizational objectives.

Commitment to Goals: Employees develop a more substantial commitment to the company’s mission and goals by aligning values enhancing overall performance and satisfaction.

The authors provide team value statements to help organizations effectively implement these strategies. This method resolves conflicts and creates a more productive workplace.

Jaffe and Scott present a valuable framework for organizations aligning personal and team values. Implementation of this framework can lead to a more engaged and motivated workforce, thereby enhancing the organization’s performance and satisfaction levels.

References

Jaffe, D. T., & Scott, C. D. (1998). How to link personal values with team values. *Training & Development, 52*(3), 24.

Bruce W. Tuckman introduced his small group development model in 1965 and revised it in 1977 with Mary Ann Conover Jensen. The model outlines forming, storming, norming, performing, and adjourning stages. It has been important to understand group dynamics in both HRD practice and academic research (Bonebright, 2009).

Initially used by HRD practitioners, Tuckman’s model became popular in academic literature due to its relevance in addressing the increasing importance of teams in the workplace. During the 1960s and 1970s, there was a significant lack of practical research on group dynamics, which Tuckman’s model effectively addressed (Bonebright, 2009).

Stages of Group Development

Forming: Groups come together and begin to understand their objectives and roles.

Storming: Members experience conflicts as they assert their ideas and compete for positions.

Norming: Conflicts resolved, and the group establishes norms and cohesion.

Performing: The group reaches optimal functioning, working effectively towards goals.

Adjourning: The group disbands after achieving its objectives (Bonebright, 2009).

Tuckman’s model is used a lot in workplace training and academic studies. It helps in understanding how groups develop and become effective over time, reflecting its era’s social and organizational trends (Bonebright, 2009).

This model remains an important part of the study of group dynamics, highlighting its historical significance and ongoing relevance in practical and academic settings.

References

Bonebright, D. A. (2009). 40 years of storming: a historical review of Tuckman’s model of small group development. *University of Minnesota, St Paul, MN 55117, USA*.

How to Link Personal Values with Team Values by Jaffe, Dennis T. and Scott, Cynthia D.

In this article the focus on aligning personal and team values reminds me of real-world workplace conflicts where misaligned values often cause misunderstandings. This creates tension, leading to conflict, especially when the company’s values aren’t clearly communicated or open to discussion.

This article brings up an interesting point about expectations of values within the workplace. So often have employees entered a workplace and just assumed that the other employees and managers would have similar values. On the opposing side, workplaces often assume employees are aligned with the company’s values, without taking the time to explore individuals’ values. This assumption is detrimental as it allows employees go off of assumptions rather than clearly defined values. Lulling companies and employees into a false sense of security. By not having clear expectations of values including standards on how work should be done, what goals are prioritized, or how success is measured conflicts arise. Additionally, when conflicts arise, team set values can serve as a non-judgmental reference point to resolve them.

The main difference that I could find between this article and the real world is companies focus on understanding individual employees’ values. In the real world companies are much more focused on defining and enforcing corporate values. The text describes organizations that leverage and discuss personal values. Many times corporations will not even speak about corporate or personal values unless a conflict arises. Using the discussion of values as a fire extinguisher instead of a prevention mechanism. In short, the real world often leans more toward reactive conflict resolution based on assumed shared values.

For DEJ #4 I will analyze the article A Project Team Analysis Using Tuckman’s Model of Small-Group Development.

Text-to-Self: This article brings to mind a time when I was part of a team that struggled with accountability and unclear expectations. We started our project with no clear goals or guidelines, which led to a lot of miscommunication and frustration. Just like the Storming stage described in the article, we had a period of conflict, and it wasn’t until we established clearer roles and responsibilities similar to the team charter that we began to function properly.

Text-to-Text: The team charter that is mentioned in this article reminds me of the project I worked on during my internship at Bosch last summer. We had to develop a team charter for a coding project that would assess the priority level of certain tasks based on their importance to make sure production in the factory would remain active. In the forming stage, we had a great ethical perspective of our objective as well as clear and concise roles for all team members involved.

Text-to-World: In the workplace, employees often feel dissatisfied when tasks and responsibilities are distributed unevenly, leading to burnout and turnover. This article’s focus on the ethical implications of workload management connects to larger discussions in the world of education and healthcare about how to retain staff by ensuring fairness and transparency in management decisions. Today, with more focus on employee well-being and fairness, these ethical perspectives are critical for any organization aiming to maintain a motivated and productive workforce.

For this DEJ post, I reviewed the article 40 Years of Storming: A historical review of Tuckman’s model of small group development.

Text-to-Self: This article reminds me of the times I’ve been part of group projects in my academic and professional life. When I first started working on team projects, there was always that initial period of everyone being polite and trying to figure out their place, just like in Tuckman’s Forming stage. I’ve also experienced the Storming stage, where conflicts over tasks or leadership roles arise. It takes time for everyone to settle into their roles and for the project to become productive. The personal frustration and sense of satisfaction that comes from finally getting a group to work efficiently reflect my own experiences as a leader, trying to navigate these stages.

Text-to-Text: This article really makes me think of an article I read about in my internship I had this past summer called the 5x WHY. It is a foundational structure for establishing a team and solving a problem using a structured ethical approach. The models complement each other giving great insight into both the mechanics and emotional dynamics of teamwork.

Text-to-World: I have seen Tuckman’s model applied in my internship at Bosch where teams had to be established for specific projects. In which Tuckman’s model is applied every day to help facilitate the management of the teams to efficiently and effectively handle any problem at hand.

In the article, 40 years of storming: a historical review of Tuckman’s model of small group development by Denise A. Bonebright we are introduced to Tuckman’s model of small group development and the five hypothesized stages that a group must endure in order to reach the stage of a well functioning group. The four stages are forming, storming, norming, performing, and adjourning. I found this article so interesting because I have experienced most of these stages of group development in my past experiences working in a group and did not realize these common occurrences are part of a developed model. The two most common stages I have faced in the real world are forming and norming. Forming is described as the process when the group becomes oriented to tasks, creates ground rules, and tests the boundaries for interpersonal and task behaviors. Nomring is described as the stage where the group forms cohesion. I have always found forming to be the most awkward stage for me. Meeting a new group of people you typically do not know and then trying to quickly figure out how each group member acts and participates in the group is always a challenge. Especially when you have to keep up with deadlines for a project while testing the waters with your group. Norming is by far my favorite part of the process during this process you and your group members fall into a grove and begin to click and perform at the highest level possible. This process makes group work all worth it because you get to see the final product of a group working well together. 

Upon reading A Project Team Analysis Using Tuckman’s Model of Small Group Development, I learned how we can see what really helps a small group through the 5 stages as they overcome what adversities spring upon them. With the nursing facility, a workload management system had not been in place yet so the group being analyzed is the one trying to come to an improvement for the facility. Now to start, this team had an extremely in depth team charter that answered many questions that could come up within this entire process. Things like roles, boundaries, stakeholders, communication, etc. all showed how the group would conduct itself going forward. I think this study showed that the charter may be the most important step in the entire process. As the group spent two months within their forming stage, this shows the vast preparation and how serious they took planning out this case. Finally, one piece that really stood out to me within this case was the group resilience through losing their team leader. After spending so much time figuring out responsibilities, mandates kept their leader from being able to participate in their fullest capacity. The group still got together to get the job done as they delegated the responsibility between each other. I think this is admirable because when a leader goes down it can be easy to get discouraged, but this group found a way to press on.

Within the article, “How to link personal values with team values,” Dennis et al explore how differing personal values are brought into the workplace and how companies can utilize these differences towards their common goal. I love how this article looked at different ways that companies utilize their differing employees backgrounds. For example, Nordstrom has one value that the company wants and that is to satisfy customers. They expect that each employee will go about this in their own unique way. Workshops can help with this as well. As I love how the article pointed out that the workplace can be a place where a lot of differing values come together for the benefit of the company as they saw employees learn more about each other, improved diversity, and even helped bring conflict resolution together. Once this comes together I think the activity of shared values for the organization is what brings it to its best potential. When a team can say how they want to see these values throughout different actions, then we can be held accountable and are expected to act according to the values. This will benefit the overall company culture which will in turn, help the business stay on top of their operations.