Applicability of Tuckman's Team Development Model in the Sales Industry

This presentation explores the applicability of Tuckman's team development model in the sales industry. It discusses the stages of team development and how they can improve sales performance. The presentation includes a literature review and primary evidence from interviews with managers at Peter Tan Organization Singapore.

Does Team Development by
Tuckman relates to the sales industry

Table Of Contents
Introduction
Research Methodology
Literature Review
Evidence
Conclusion
References

Introduction
The reason for selecting team development as the area of
focus is because effective team work is essential for the
operational success of any organization. Over the years
teams have developed into an essential tool for
organizational operations. This has made it essential for
organizations to have effective team development
strategies. Efficient Team development leads to the
creation of a captivating work atmosphere through the
promotion of team work, co-operation, interdependence
and trust development among the members of the team.
Tuckman argues that there are four key stages in team
development namely forming, storming, norming and
performing (Homan et al. 2018). He argues that these
stages are s essential for a team to grow , tackle problems,
develop solutions, strategize and produce results(Homan
et al. 2018).

Definition
The storming stage is where the team members team members
start to understand each others independence and begin to trust
each other thereby allowing for effective cooperation.
The norming stage is where team members assume responsibility
of there independent tasks and work to ensure that team goals are
met. Hey also start to identify some of the areas in which they
share common traits with the other team members.
The performing stage is where the team members are competent
trained and capable of problem solving at an individual level.
This presentation reviews whether or not the Tuckman approach
to team development is applicable in the sales industry. The main
theme of the presentation is team development and the major
topics of discussion are what is Tuckman’s model of team
development and is it applicable in the sales industry.

Research Methodology
For this research a central theme that is in line with
the topic of discussion was chosen. From the
theme two topics where obtained and an online
literature research of academic sources was
conducted to develop an understanding of the
topics and how they build on the key topic of
discussion. The literature research constituted the
secondary evidence that would be used in the
presentation. The primary evidence was obtained
from interviews of two managers at Peter Tan
Organization Singapore. The managers provided
there insight on the topic of discussion. An analysis
of the primary and secondary evidence allowed for
the development of the conclusion

Literature Review
According to Wilderom, Tuckmans stages are essential for
effective performance of sales team. He argues that this is
most evident in the way that high performing teams tend to
experience a slight decline when a new member is added to
the team (Wilderom et al. 2015). This decline in
performance is usually due to the fact that the new team
member and other individuals in the team are at odds with
each other due to the fact that they have different tactics.
However by applying the Tuckmans model, one is able to
align this tactics together and create a uniform mode of
operation between the team members thereby allowing for
improved performance of the team. The forming stage is
where team members meet to learn about the challenges
and opportunities that they will encounter before setting
goals and commencing with the task.

Literature Review
 In the article titled, “Antecedents to effective sales and
operations planning,” the author holds that the key to an
effective sales performance is team work.
 Effective Team work is based on proper planning and
utilization of the skills of individual team members
(Swaim et al. 2016).
 To effectively utilize the skills of individual team
members programs have to be conducted to determine
there areas of strengths and weaknesses.
 The process of determining strengths and weaknesses of
individual team members constitute team development.
 Hence team development is key for sales performance.

Literature Review
Bonebright argues that Tuckman model is
effective for use in team success due to the
fact that it reduces areas of conflict in team
operation (Bonebright 2010).
 It achieves this by promoting cohesion in the
work place.
 Workers that understand each other are
able to better coordinate there efforts.
 This ensures success of the teams
operations.

Literature Review
Tuckman, and Jensen argue that the stages of team
development work together to provide insight into
the growth of a team over time.
 Stage one and two are social-emotioning tasks and
work to bring team members closer socially and
emotionally (Tuckman, and Jensen 1977).
 Stage three and four are task oriented and work to
identify the skills of team members and how it
complements different aspects of the task.
 The last task is the application task.
 Therefore they work together to ensure team
success.

Primary Evidence
 Ms Magdalene Koh - Executive Wealth Manager - Peter Tan Organisation
Singapore (Current Company)
 Who is 27 years old, have been working with this organisation ever since
she graduated from university. She was promoted as executive wealth
manager last year from senior wealth manager. The people in her team are
about the same age or younger than her
Traits
1. Do you agree that team development is important in sales
industry?
I think we have to find the right people to form a team. As everyone has
different characters and attitude, finding the person with the same goal
would be better to form a team. However, team development is important
too. Through team developing, the members can get to know each other
better and will be able to work better and to achieve higher heights.

Primary Evidence
 Ms Grace Tan - Recruitment Officer - Peter Tan Organisation Singapore (Current Company)
 Who is 24 years old, have been working for this organisation for 2 years. She helps in
recruitment, recruiting new members into the team.
Traits
1. How do you select candidate and hire them?
Identifying the behaviours, skills and qualities which are
required to add value to the role is important when selecting
a candidate. In the industry, we tend to look for the people
who are more outgoing as we are doing sales. We focus more
on accomplishments when interviewing the candidates rather
than experience and knowledge. Determine how the
candidate would do to achieve the results or targets that are
given to them. We select the people whom are comfortable
working as team and learn to grow as a team.

Criticism
 The approach is only effective in small
teams and can not work in large teams due
to the diverse nature of personalities and
skills that are in large teams.
 As a result of this the model only works
when dealing with small sales teams and not
the entire sales department.
 Employing the model is quite tasking with
regards to time.
 The model has to be done again evreytime a
new individual enters the team.

Conclusion
Through an analysis of both the primary and
secondary sources, it is evident that there is a
coherence among team members is effective for
the performance of the sales team. Team members
need to be able to work together in harmony with
each other to ensure effective performance.
Tuckmans model of team development provides an
avenue for promoting co-operation and cohesion
among team members. Therefore it is logical to
conclude that the Tuckman approach can be
employed in the sales industry.

Bibliography
 Wilderom, C.P., Hur, Y., Wiersma, U.J., Berg, P.T.V. and Lee, J., 2015. From
manager's emotional intelligence to objective store performance: Through store
cohesiveness and sales‐directed employee behavior. Journal of organizational
behavior, 36(6), pp.825-844.
 Homan, M.S., Homan, M.S., Abramovitz, M., Alinsky, S.D., Bailey, D., McNally
Coney, K., McNish, M., Powers, R., Uhly, K., Berkowitz, W.R. and Berkowitz,
W.R., 2018. Stages of small-group development revisited. In Rules of the Game:
Lessons from the Field of Community Change (Vol. 577, No. 1, pp. XI-XV). New
York, NY: Teachers College Press.
 Swaim, J.A., Maloni, M., Bower, P. and Mello, J., 2016. Antecedents to effective
sales and operations planning. Industrial Management & Data Systems, 116(6),
pp.1279-1294.
Bonebright, D.A., 2010. 40 years of storming: a historical
review of Tuckman's model of small group
development. Human Resource Development
International, 13(1), pp.111-120.
Tuckman, B.W. and Jensen, M.A.C., 1977. Stages of small-
group development revisited. Group & Organization
Studies, 2(4), pp.419-427.