Team Development: The Key to Effective Business Communication

This reflective essay explores the concept of team development and its importance in effective business communication. It discusses different theories and models of team development and how they contribute to organizational growth. The essay also highlights the role of effective communication in building cohesive teams.

Institutional Affiliation(S)
[Course title]
Effective business communication
Student name

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Reflective Practice Assignment
Reflective essay has always added to the effort required in understanding course study
and this reflective essay will reflect upon my understanding of my course unit study. This
essay will particularly reflect on week nine’s study i.e. team development. To understand the
concept in clearer way, this essay will utilise literature review on team development as
provided in scholarly articles. For working in contemporary organisation, this concept will
help me in comprehending my core responsibilities while developing and working within
teams. As I went through the literature and my class notes, I found that groups within
organisations are the chosen members who unites together and take responsibility for
completing desired job in specified time period. In this reflective report, I would reflect upon
different theories associated with team development as presented in literature along with
mentioning other two concepts which will help in my future course as a professional
practitioner.
Groups help in bringing unity among organisations by letting each member know
about other team members’ knowledge and ideas. The mutual bonding is created through
team creations and thus tasks are completed efficiently. Since I aspire to become a human
resource manager in my future career, understanding team development concept will help me
in developing effective communication within my teams. According to Kumar, Deshmukh &
Adish, (2014), “Building effective team is necessary for creating an appropriate
organizational environment” (pp.208). Indeed, since primary objective behind creating a team
cannot be fulfilled unless a team is developed strategically and in a planned way. In literature,
it has been very well documented that teams form a general unit to accomplish business
objectives for which teams and its members need to follow proper team development stages
as per requirement. This has been realised by me through my practical experiences as well
when I was assigned in a team in which every member belonged to diversified backgrounds.

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Due to communication barrier, we had to face many difficulties since during that time we
were unaware about theories related to team development stages while working in teams.
During my entire ten weeks course study, I came through various concepts related to
effective communication and how efficiently teams provide positive effect in organisational
culture. According to Adnan, Akram & Akram (2013), group building plays a major role in
motivating individuals to enhance their self-control ability whenever they exploit their inner
capabilities. Similar statement has been proven by Allen (2018) where the author has
discussed about how team development can convert organisations into healthier workplaces.
Effective teams not only help in moving organisations towards better opportunities, but also
enhances networking and learning experience for individuals who share common learnings
with each other’s. Ravi & Sumanthi (2016) elaborates by comparing teams that do not
understand the importance behind working within teams and those groups who shares each
other’s responsibility and efforts while moving towards desired objective. The groups , who
cultivate a responsibility sharing habits understand will always generate enhanced learning
experience . In addition , they will be more capable to adapt to any changes during the times
of problem-solving stages for enhanced work production.
In the year 1965, a comprehensive team development stages were introduced by
Bruce Tuckman after the author reviewed fifty articles related to team development stages
(Hingst, 2006). According to the first stage in Tuckman’s team development model, for every
team, their forming stage is crucial in which every team members are provided with an initial
work to understand their capabilities. During this stage, individuals unite together to
formulate procedures and requirements that can accomplish a common goal. They also get to
introduce themselves and their core capabilities that can prove beneficial for the desired task.
The second stage comprises storming stage which is also considered as one of the most

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crucial among all stages. According to Tuckman, this stage is full of conflicts and intense
discussions and thus he has given another name to this stage i.e. intragroup conflict stage.
According to the next stage in Tuckman’s model which is norming stage, teams
develop cohesiveness among each other and start responding to each other’s queries while
inviting other members to take part in group discussions. The ideas shared and response
given to one another shows that the groups have formed actually and that team members are
following a common norm to complete a specified task. After norming stage, teams move to
its fourth stage, commonly known as performing stage after initial conflicts have been sorted.
In performing stage, teams start contributing their expertise and shows responsibility as a
team member. According to Hingst (2006), when individuals start observing that they have
become individually responsible for task fulfilment, they start working unitedly and agrees
moving towards next direction where problem solving along with emergence of solutions
happens. The final stage of Tuckman’s model that was added later is known as adjourning
stage in which groups gets terminated whenever their task is completed or remains
accomplished by team members.
Other than Tuckman’s model, I came to know about other significant team
development model which is Fisher’s theory of decision emergence in team development.
According to this theory, decision making and task distribution stages requires effective
communication along with critical management thinking to develop a stronger team. In
decision emergence model, the initial stage requires orientation phase in which team
members forms relationship with each other. However, conflicts may also arise at this stage.
In this stage, effective communication becomes significant as every team member may not be
aware of other team members’ ideas and knowledge. The second stage comprises of conflict
stage where new ideas discussed may potentially lead to conflicts and tension arising within
few team mates who try to outdo others. According to Frances (2008), in some teams,

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conflicts can bring competition within teams and they start competing with each other to
perform in a better manner. The next stage is known as emergence stage in which final
outcome of conflicts show practical formation. In this stage, team members may show
courtesy towards each other and soften their views to show interest in working under teams.
Lastly, reinforcement stage occurs in which very team member makes commitment to follow
common goals and procedures by force or by mutual understanding. Fisher’s theory shows
practicality in nature; however, it has few loopholes also. Any common disagreement shown
during any of the stages can bring halt to the entire development process (Adnan, Akram, &
Akram, 2013). Nevertheless, both the models i.e. Tuckman and Fisher’s theory involves every
significant procedure that can help individuals to form a team effectively.
While going through the literature related to team development, I came through
Tubb’s model as many authors describe this model to be more unpretentious as compared to
other team development models. Tubb’s model does not utilise extra factors that are directly
related to individual personalities as seen in Tuckman’s forming and Fisher’s orientation
phase. According to Connors & Caple (2005), Tubb’s model uses system’s theory in its
development model in which three general categories can be seen. First is relevant
background factor in which individual team member provides their reasons for being in a
team. Next comes internal influences in which members’ behaviour is recognised within
teams and finally the last phase or the consequential phase take place where final output of
team formation is realised. Jahng (2012) suggests that Tubb’s model must be used to form
those teams where team members move forward in updated and linear manner to understand
the behaviour arising due to different situations during team development formation.

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The importance of team development has been recognised by me that can help in my
future career. However, to understand team members is also very significant for which
organisational communication concept will be highly used by me in my future role as human
resource manager. Teamwork have opened new ways through which organisations can adopt
new ways through combined efforts along with operating in more effective manner through
contributions made on combined basis (Dailey, 2012). Here, my course study related to
organisation communication will prove fruitful for building effective communication
strategies at my workplace. Since my personal communication skill is not as much effective
as required, this concept will be studied more thoroughly by me to use it in my future career.
Organisational structure will also prove beneficial in my future career as it will guide me
while presenting official reports and laying individual relationship report to govern the
workflow within my workplace. According to Dailey (2012), formal structure outline helps
organisations to add or dismiss individual responsibilities along with making provisions for
flexible methods required for organisational growth. As workplace teams and group
formations are becoming more common in today’s businesses, organisations need to harness
those synergies which can be developed by teams after understanding the organisation’s
structure to accomplish a common objective. Being an HR manager the above two concepts
along with team development study will help me in leading teams according to my workplace
demands.
After going through entire ten weeks learning, I have understood that teams along
with effective communication is very important as they allow formations of organisation’s
structure in critical manner. Team development concept, according to me is the most
captivating topic as it is the only way through which organisations can accomplish difficult
tasks effectively through joint collaboration. Therefore, my above essay has reflected my
personal learning along with literature review made on team development concept. While

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going through the literature, I found that different models have different stages, but all leads
to effective formation of teams. After this ten weeks course, I find myself more confident and
knowledgeable as well as more enriched with core concepts that is required by an effective
team leader along with being more confident to develop an efficient team seeking a common
objective.

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References
Kumar, S., Deshmukh, V., & Adhish, V. S. (2014). Building and Leading Teams. Indian Journal of
Community Medicines , 39 (04), 208-213.
Adnan, A., Akram, A., & Akram, F. (2013). Group Development: Theory and Practice. Middle-East
Journal of Scientific Research , 16 (10), 1428-1435.
Allen, W. E. (2018). Leadership Theory: A Different Conceptual Approach . Journal of Leadership
Education , 17 (12), 149-161.
Connors, J. V., & Caple, R. B. (2005). A Review of Group Systems Theory. The Journal for Specialists in
Group Work , 30 (02), 93-110.
Dailey, R. (2012). Organisational Behaviour. Edinburgh Business School .
Frances, M. (2008). Stages of Group Development - A PCP Approach. Personal Construct Theory &
Practice , 5, 10-18.
Hingst, R. (2006). Tuckman’s theory of group development in a call centre context: does it still
work? . 5th Global Conference on Business & Economics. Cambridge.
Jahng, N. (2012). An Investigation of Collaboration Processes in an Online Course: How do Small
Groups Develop over Time? International Review of Research in Open and Distance Learning , 13
(04), 1-13.
Ravi, B. S., & Sumanthi, G. (2016). Study on Theory of Group Development; Groups and Teams. IOSR
Journal of Business and Management , 18 (02), 58-61.
Schein, E. H. (2004). Organisational Culture and Leadership (3 ed.). San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
Adnan, A., Akram, A., & Akram, F. (2013). Group Development: Theory and Practice.
Middle-East Journal of Scientific Research, 16(10), 1428-1435.
Allen, W. E. (2018). Leadership Theory: A Different Conceptual Approach . Journal of
Leadership Education, 17(12), 149-161.
Connors, J. V., & Caple, R. B. (2005). A Review of Group Systems Theory. The Journal for
Specialists in Group Work, 30(02), 93-110.
Dailey, R. (2012). Organisational Behaviour. Edinburgh Business School .
Frances, M. (2008). Stages of Group Development - A PCP Approach. Personal Construct
Theory & Practice, 5, 10-18.

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Hingst, R. (2006). Tuckman’s theory of group development in a call centre context: does it
still work? . 5th Global Conference on Business & Economics. Cambridge.
Jahng, N. (2012). An Investigation of Collaboration Processes in an Online Course: How do
Small Groups Develop over Time? International Review of Research in Open and
Distance Learning, 13(04), 1-13.
Kumar, S., Deshmukh, V., & Adhish, V. S. (2014). Building and Leading Teams. Indian
Journal of Community Medicines, 39(04), 208-213.
Ravi, B. S., & Sumanthi, G. (2016). Study on Theory of Group Development; Groups and
Teams. IOSR Journal of Business and Management, 18(02), 58-61.