Bruce Tuckman's Theory Essay

Virgin group of companies has various stages of development that influences the continuous development of the company. Dr. Bruce Tuckman first introduced his 'Forming, Storming, Norming, Performing and Adjourning' model as a means to explain team development and behaviour. His model essentially clarifies the idea that as the team "develops maturity and ability, relationships establish, and leader changes leadership style." The Tuckman theory is widely known as a a basis for effective team building. The first stage, 'Forming,' portrays a stage where groups are in the process of adapting to a new environment with a new team and there is a high degree of uncertainty between employees as they struggle to understand who is in charge of certain tasks and overall what the company's goals and objectives essentially are
and how as a team, they can all reach those goals. Richard Branson made a priority to hire people that "had skills in excess to those required" along with recruiting "friendly" people as he believes that this factor contributed to Virgin's ability to build successful teams.
'Storming' generally starts with there is a rise in conflict between employees' natural working style, it may also occur when certain employees start to challenge your authority and in some cases, if team member's roles aren't specific enough, they may feel overwhelmed and could be uncomfortable with certain approaches. Branson prefers the approach of providing employees with his phone number in hope that if there is any sort of conflict or if team members feel unhappy or unsatisfied at Virgin, that they can approach Branson and an agreement and perhaps suggesting new ideas can come forward. 'Norming' is the stage where "conflicts are resolved, close relationships develop, and unity and harmony emerge." In the workforce of Virgin, a high level of cooperation between the captain all the way to the flight attendants and ground crew is required in order for operations to run smoothly for the sake of getting flights out smoothly and
promptly. 'Performing' is the stage where team members have total certainty of what their role is in the company, and as a team, they work towards the common goals of the company. Richard Branson was a firm believer in hiring the right people for his company. He believed that you will only have a successful team if you have people that "they have to love it and believe in the products you sell" (Kinicki, A. et al. 2015). Along with the stages of development, Virgin group of companies also has roles that influence the effectiveness of groups. In general speaking terms, roles are generalised expected behaviours of certain employees within their positions in the workforce. Roles are split into task roles and maintenance roles. Task roles consists of expected behaviour of employees when attempting to concentrate on getting specific tasks done. Examples of task roles in action at virgin group of companies is coordinator and aviation safety officer. Maintenance roles consists of the behaviour that exists between team members as they bond with each other and relationships with each other rises. This is demonstrated in Virgin group of companies as Richard Branson believes that hiring 'friendly people' will allow teams to build in a sense where friendships are made. Through this, a range of different acts exist between employees as they act as encouragers to each other and by working as a team, and when people are happy, production rises.