To start I would like to explain how the group first worked, the individuals in this group and their roles. Most of the roles have prevailed, but because of the development of our group, and the increased cohesion, some of our roles have changed.

David should defiantly play the role of task orientation, and for the most part he does. He has this fear of being too bossy and tries not to demand too much. He leaves the details up to Mary, and however we wants to accomplish something he tries not to interfere. David is one of the stronger information givers of the group, but that is why we are a team, no one in the group knows how to do everything necessary to finish a project. David knows the law and the rules of the court. He

While observing this group and applying it to the concepts we have learned in class, I am definitely seeing how and why the five stages to developing cohesion are so important. The orientation stage is inevitable. Whenever you are thrown into a group you have to feel the members out and be on you best behavior until you become settled. To become settled you have to have some sort of conflict. The problem come when a group doesn't leave either of these stages. If you don't ever conflict with anyone else, you will be stuck on an impersonal, unreal polite stage. Once you conflict, it is important to work though that so you can reach a point where you can really work with the other members in the group. This structural stage is very important so as to acquire trust and relationships, and develop roles that everyone can work with. All of which is important for the development and production of the group. With this worked out the group can then move to a level of pure performance. Then when the group is finished it will dissolve, breakdown and eventually finish up. Even though this group has not reached this level, I

This brings us to the structural (norming) stage. At this point David had to layout the rules and responsibilities. From there, the rest of the group made their own. For example, David had broken down the work and told everyone what they were responsible for, when they would take lunch and how he was going to deal with a problem like this if it occurred again. The group stuck to his order quite closely at first, but we slowly brought it to a level that we were all comfortable at. David had told Paul that he was to give Mary his best work, that she was there to catch David's mistakes not Paul's. He told Mary that whether Paul is actually a good writer didn't matter because it was her responsibility to make sure the courts will accept the material. Erica was given the responsibility of getting everything necessary to client's and keeping the office organized, but without saying it, she was given the duty of keeping Paul and Mary in-line. After about a week of following his orders, they started to settle into their own regime, knowing that if they step on anyone's toes they could lose their jobs. Mary started picking up some of Paul's slack and Paul made sure his work was up to a certain level before it left his office. Now they were overlapping, doing a little extra on each end which was bringing them together. When Erica was added to the mix, a friendly tone appeared. They were now doing work at the same time. If Paul started a project he told Mary and Erica what he was doing to they could all work on it. This way they would finish about the same time and one project could be finished in less than a day. The communication level increased as well as the comfort level.

This cohesion has brought the group to a level where their task work never really falls below disjunctive. More often than not they work with results of additive or compensatory. They work at everyone's best level and pull the others up with them. They work as a group, considering and needing everyone's input. They also have their size in their favor. Because the group is so small they really aren't affected by the Ringelmann effect, although I can see where that would apply if the group did increase, mainly because there would not be enough work for more people so someone would have to loaf a little. At this point, there is no room for social loafing. Everyone is needed to do their specific job.

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Approximate Word count = 2756
Approximate Pages = 11 (250 words per page double spaced)