BUS600 Week 2 Assignment - Organizational Teams

There is a distinct difference between groups and teams. Groups are defined as two or more freely interacting individuals who share collective goals and norms and have a common identity. Teams are a small number of people with complementary skills who are committed to a common purpose, performance goals and approach for which they hold themselves accountable. According to famed educational psychologist, Bruce W. Tuckman’s model, the development of a group combines five stages which are forming, storming, norming, performing and adjourning. A simpler explanation would be the creation of the group; testing the groups’ chain of command; cohesiveness of the group; solving task problems; and completion of task. Groups evolve into teams when the first three stages of group development are bypassed and task groups have matured to the performing stage. At this phase, teams share open communication, strong group effort and collaborative assistance (2008, p. 279-306).