1. An Introduction to Groups
and Teams
Based on the works of Levi (2011) and Edgar Schein
(2011)

2. Agenda for January 23
Welcome and
brief
introductions Checking Your
Groups and
Begin viewing Teams IQ
Twelve Angry
Men
Review of
Syllabus and
Assignments, i
Shoebox
ncluding
Exercise
blogs, the
wiki, and
Google+
Introduction to
Groups and Teams assigned
Teams

3. Assignments Three reaction
papers on
Paradoxes - 5%
each
Team learning
activity /
Included in presentation –
participation 20%
• Shoebox
• Team Charter
• Team member roles
Team facilitation
exercises – 20%
Participation and
Involvement – Final paper – 25%
20%

4. Use of blogs, wikis, and Google+
Blogs
• Set up your own
• Edublogs.org, Wordpress.com, Blogger.com, or the VCU blog
• 5 individual posts throughout the semester and 3 comments on blogs
of your triad / quad
The Class Wiki
• In lieu of Bb, except for grades
• http://groupsandteams2012.pbworks.com
Google+ (http://plus.google.com)
• Advising
• Need Gmail account
• Set up Google+ account

5. Issues Encountered When in
Entering a New Group
 Identity - Who am I to be?
 Control & Influence - Will I be able to control
and influence others?
 Needs & Goals - Will the group goals include
my own needs?
 Acceptance & Intimacy - Will I be liked and
accepted by the group?

6. Self-Oriented Coping Responses
 “Tough” responses: fighting, controlling,
and resisting authority
 “Tender” responses: supporting, helping,
forming alliances, dependency
 Withdrawal or denial responses:
passivity, indifference, overuse of “logic and
reason”

7. Group Development
 First, a period of self-oriented behavior
 As self-oriented concerns are
addressed, people pay more attention
to each other and the task at hand
 The work of “building” the group occurs
simultaneously with task
accomplishment

8. Questions Asked by New
Team Members
 Am I in or out?
 Do I have any power or control?
 Can I use, develop, and be appreciated
for my skills and resources?

9. Tuckman’s Stages of Group
Development
 Forming
 Storming
 Norming
 Performing
 Adjourning

10. Task Dimensions
The relationship between group
members and the task they are to
perform. Task refers to the job they have
to do and how they go about doing it.

11. Process dimensions
The relationships of group members with
one another -- how they feel toward one
another and how they feel about their
membership in the group.

12. Task and Process Dimensions
 Highly interdependent in practice; without
both dimensions, group process does not
exist
 Task output is productivity
 Process output is cohesiveness

13. Relationship Between Cohesiveness
and Productivity
Cohesiveness

14. Promoting Cohesiveness in
Groups
 Encourage interpersonal attraction through
attitudinal similarity
 Increase contact time
 Build perceptions of others as likeable
 Create opportunities for self-disclosure
 Promote group identification

15. Cohesiveness in Groups, con’t
 Create history
 Accomplish something
 Develop relationships and shared
norms
 Promote acceptance of all members
 Encourage external threats

16. An Effective Team Possesses...
 Adequate mechanisms for getting feedback
 Optimal cohesion
 Flexible organization and procedures
 Maximum use of member resources
 Clear communications
 Clear goals accepted by all members
 Feelings of interdependence
 Shared participation in leadership functions,
including decision making
 Acceptance of minority views and persons