The Five Stages of Group Formation

Discuss why the study of group dynamics is important to today’s managers, and how it would be useful to your selected organization, in particular. Explain how group cohesiveness either is or could be developed and sustained in the organization.

Ohio health is a nationally recognized, not for profit, charitable, healthcare outreach of the United Methodist Church. It has been recognized as one of the top 5 largest healthcare systems in America. Ohio health encompasses more than 29000 associates, volunteers and physicians and a vast network of more than 11 hospitals and provides health services in more than 47 Ohio countries. Ohio health is on a very noble mission, to provide excellent medical services to the people in need and create an environment of better health amongst all individuals.

The aim of the assignment is to discuss about the group dynamics to the managers and how the group cohesiveness could be developed or sustained in the organization. In the report, organizational barriers to the team effectiveness will also be discussed at length

Every organization in itself is a group, a group refers to two or more people who share a common meaning, goals and combine the efforts of each other to reach the goal. Group dynamics is concerned about the interactions and forces operating in the group. It is concerned with how the groups are formed, their structure and the processes which are followed in the functioning of the groups (Levi, 2015). It can be seen as a dynamic process, and every group passes through 5 stages in its evolution:

Forming – This is the stage where the group members are just getting to know each other and they are introduced for the first time. This stage is the formal association of these team members with each other.

Storming – This stage is marked by various conflicts due to a lack of understanding between group members. People of the group are just getting to understand each other.

Norming – Once people have had conflicts, this is the stage where the group members normalize around each other and get used to the fact that they are working together.

Performing – Once the team has normalized, now the group members begin to work together and put efforts towards achieving the common goal.

Adjourning – Once the organizational goals have been met, the group then adjourns. This stage is also marked by providing constructive feedback to all the team members.

The Importance of Group Dynamics in Healthcare

In the modern day world group dynamics play an important role in the organization, in healthcare it has a greater role to play because life of people is at stake. There are a number of reasons which makes group dynamics such an important topic to study in the purview of the organization

An effective group can be extremely useful for the organization as positive synergies are divested towards positivity and growth of the organization. The importance of group dynamics for managers at Ohio health can be:

• The group can influence the thinking of other group members and it serves as a benefit for the managers as other members help the managers in communicating the right message to the group. It also helps in cohesion among the group which can be used to work effectively towards a common goal (Forsyth, 2018). When the group dynamic is positive, it leads to effective flow of communication across the group. This also leads to improved trust and respect among group members.
• A group which has a better team leader is a win-win for both the group and the manager, the leader act as a support system for the managers and he can use the leader to convey the important things to the entire group (Smeekes & Verkuyten, 2015). A good team leader, leads the team by example and holds the group together for successful accomplishment of goals.
• A group can help in creation of positive synergies which gives a forward looking approach for the group. It also helps in increasing the productivity of the organization. A positive group dynamic makes it easier for people to work together by creating an environment of growth and productivity
• Group dynamism helps in giving job satisfaction to the members of the group. Once the group members are satisfied and happy with each other, they tend to support each other. Group dynamics keep the employees motivated and this in turn helps them accomplish organizational goals effectively. This induced motivation also saves time of the manager who would otherwise have to put additional efforts in keeping employees motivated.
• One of the important aspects of group dynamism is creating a sense of team spirit in the group. It works perfectly fine for the managers as the manager is always looking for ways to induce the team spirit in the group. Team spirit within a group is often the driving force for team members to work hard.
• If the group is working as a cohesive group, the cooperation and convergence can pave the way towards maximum productivity. The goal of every manager is to ensure that the productivity of the organization increases and hence group dynamics helps in making it possible (Mulvey, Rizzo & Killen, 2016)
• Organization are constantly under the pressure owing to employee attrition, but at the same time a good group dynamic can reduce the attrition. This attrition comes down with an effective group dynamics as positive group dynamics lead to increased positivity and improved satisfaction among people.

Hence, Ohio health has established several groups of physicist, nurses, doctors, and surgeons etc. which help them to effectively work towards the attainment of their goals.

Group cohesion is the degree to which the group members are attracted to each other and associate themselves with the group. Development of group cohesion is a result of activities, interactions amongst the group members and the mutual sentiments of the members. Cohesiveness in the group is the only factor which binds all the group members to work towards a common goal. Group cohesion can thus be created by inducing winning habits among the group; team building activities and making them understand how positive group dynamics is a contributing factor in the fulfilment and attainment of their personal and professional goals. At Ohio, group cohesion is developed and encouraged by taking the entire group out on trips and engaging them in multiple gaming, sentimental, strategy based and fun activities (Clonts & Gibbs, 2017). Such efforts by the top management of the business, result in group members being comfortable around one another and hence results in a positive working environment. This is turn also positively impacts employee performance, their morale and their levels of satisfaction.

No matter , how much the managers work towards building an effective team, a team which sticks together and work together, there are many barriers which affect the team effectiveness. Some of the prominent ones are:

Poor communication: Good communication fosters good teamwork, on the other side poor communication results in decreased productivity of the team. Managers have to be thus well aware of the effects of communication and must try at all cost to communicate effectively within the team (Richter, McAlearney & Pennell, 2016). Honest communication within the team also leads to establishment of trust and respect for one another. Therefore an absence of transparent communication adversely affects team work (Waller, Okhuysen & Saghafian, 2016).

Creating Group Cohesiveness at Ohio Health

Unclear Goals: The purpose of the team is to attain the goals of the organization and team work aides the process. In an organization where the goals are unclear the entire team is going in different direction, nulling the possibilities of any kind of synergy within the group. When organizational goals are unclear, every member of the team becomes directionless and it is even more difficult to bring synergy in such a team.

Lack of managerial involvement: Managers is the backbone of the team, he act as a leader in managing and monitoring the team. But if the manager is busy in some other tasks and is not in a position to give time to the team, the functioning of the team hampers, leading to inefficient teams. Ideally, a leader must lead by example. Therefore, an absence of a leadership figure makes it difficult for the team to coordinate together. An important role played by the leader is to ensure effective team building (Santos, Caetano & Tavares, 2015).

Ego: All the team members are not alike, it is often seen in organizations that there are members who have a very high ego, they have a tendency of not taking order from somebody junior in the team, or if somebody request them to do a task, they get baffled and disrupt the entire team work. Such egoistic members negatively affect the effective team building.

Lack of understanding in team members: Very often teams are composed of a set of varied people who come from different backgrounds. People may belong to different cultures, lifestyles and may have had different work experiences. When such a diverse group of people comes together to work, it takes time to build a positive understanding among them. This lack of understanding acts as a barrier to effective team work.

References

Clontz, N. S., & Gibbs, A. L. (2017). Factors that Affect Group Work: Group Cohesion and Therapeutic Alliance in Substance Abuse Treatment and Personal Growth Groups (Doctoral dissertation, Brenau University).

Forsyth, D. R. (2018). Group dynamics. Cengage Learning.

Levi, D. (2015). Group dynamics for teams. Sage Publications.

Mulvey, K. L., Rizzo, M. T., & Killen, M. (2016). Challenging gender stereotypes: Theory of mind and peer group dynamics. Developmental science, 19(6), 999-1010.

Ohio health, 2018, ‘About us’, https://www.ohiohealth.com/about-us/, retrieved on 1^st February 2018

Richter, J. P., McAlearney, A. S., & Pennell, M. L. (2016). The influence of organizational factors on patient safety: Examining successful handoffs in health care. Health care management review, 41(1), 32-41.

Santos, J. P., Caetano, A., & Tavares, S. M. (2015). Is training leaders in functional leadership a useful tool for improving the performance of leadership functions and team effectiveness? The Leadership Quarterly, 26(3), 470-484.

Smeekes, A., & Verkuyten, M. (2015). The presence of the past: Identity continuity and group dynamics. European Review of Social Psychology, 26(1), 162-202.

Waller, M. J., Okhuysen, G. A., & Saghafian, M. (2016). Conceptualizing emergent states: A strategy to advance the study of group dynamics. The Academy Of Management Annals, 10(1), 561-598.