Module 4: Managing Group Dynamics in a Decision Environment
Team dynamics is very important for any leader to understand. When developing teams leaders need to have an understanding of the comfort level of the team members involved. According to this weeks assigned reading many decisions facing managers today are made in conjunction with other individuals and it is very common for each of these individuals to have different interests (Bazerman & Moore, 2013). Dealing with individuals who prefer to take initiative and individuals who prefer to be told what to do are all part of leadership.
There are benefits and drawbacks to each individual's preference. When considering Cog's Ladder, the leader must understand the five steps of group growth. The five steps, as defined by Charrier (1972) include: (1) the polite stage, (2) why are we here?, (3) bid for power, (4) cooperative, and (5) unity, mutual acceptance, and high cohesiveness. When considering the five stages an invidual that prefers to take the initiative would be comfortable in each step. The benefit for the individual who prefers to take initiative could really be seen as group members make a bid for power. This could also be a drawback to the individual who prefers to be told what to do. As a leader it would be important to guide team development through these five steps and keep each member involved. An individual who prefers to be told what to do could easily be bulldozed by other more dominant team members (Charrier, 1972).
As a leader it would be important to recognize these differences in team make-up. It would be vital to keep all members of the team engaged in the development of the team. One leadership style that could help propel the team through to higher stages of team development could be found in the transformational leadership style. The transformational leadership style is on style targeted at innovation (Jiang, Gu, & Wang, 2015). Sharing knowledge throughout the makeup of the team allows the diverse espertise of each member to be "cross-fertilized" among team members to generate knowledge and creative work (p. 678).
References:
Bazerman, M.H., & Moore, D.A. (2013). Judgment in Managerial Decision Making (8th Ed.). Hoboken, N.J.: John Wiley and Sons, Inc. ISBN- 13:
9781118065709
Charrier, G. O. (1972). Cog's Ladder: A Model of Group Growth. SAM Advanced Management Journal (00360805), 37(1), 30.
Jiang, W., Gu, Q., & Wang, G. G. (2015). To guide or to divide: The dual-side effects of transformational leadership on team innovation. Journal of Business and Psychology, 30(4), 677-691. doi:http://dx.doi.org.csuglobal.idm.oclc.org/10.1007/s10869-014-9395-0
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