Group Development and Team Effectiveness, Essay Example

Introduction

The role of the principal, is becoming extremely important, as faculty and staff look towards being a leader throughout the field. Emerged in the 1980s the role of the instructional leader became a new concept to describe the role of the principal or school director. This was largely based on the information and research dedicated to stressing the significance of seeing principals in leadership positions. The role of the principle as a facilitative leaders is strictly within the confines of placing importance on the need for schools to be accountable in upholding the educational standards. The purpose of this report is to detail within this career setting the need for group development. Within any business setting, with the increase of technology, and a call for more accountability, there is a shift from the singular culture of yesterday, to the team culture of today, which has brown a new dynamic of innovation, development, and learning. In utilizing both Tuckman’s Theory and Group Theory, this paper will provide a plan for leadership utilizing groups for principals. This is important because being an instructional leader, or more specifically a principal in an educational setting, is not a lone task. It requires collaboration, cooperation, and team effort from a collective group to define goals and be productive.

The theory of group development for application in groups are defined variably by two stages: competence and membership. “A method for measuring developmental progress in task teams based on congruence in group cognitive representations of the team as it is, the ideal team, and the team as it out to be proposed.” (Bushe and Coetzer 184) More emphatically, there must be a developmental process in which we look at how groups are formed, and how tasks are delegated in their career-setting, and how it is measured for team effectiveness. Looking at Tuckman’s Theory, we see that the stages of group development are highlighted as: forming, storming, norming, performing, and adjourning. In looking at Tuckman’s Theory we see that in the elementary stages of forming groups there are certain stages that must be met in order to maintain and obtain goals for the group to properly function. In developing this plan to apply to the group, one must first give a background on why this will be fundamental in the career of the principal, or instructional leader.

Background of Principal As Instructional Leader

In being critically important to run an effective educational institution, a principal must be able to prioritize, as well as mobilize in order to be innovative in leading an institution. For a principal, they must take on the role as an instructional leader, administrator, and manager. Principals that convey instructional leadership must incorporate themselves to evaluate the teachers and staff, monitor the lesson plans, manage the curriculum, allocate resources to instruction, and set clear goals. As quoted by Flath (1989), and reiterated by the NAESP, “instructional leadership reflects those actions a principal takes to promote growth in student leaning; the instructional leader makes instructional quality the top priority of the school and attempts to bring that vision to realization.” (NAESP 35) The importance of group development within this career are surrounded by the expanded role that the principal plays in being the leader in both instructional and learning aspects. Principals are tasked with taking responsibility for what the students learn, reflect on their jobs, collaborate to solve problems, and discuss on a regular basis with staff member to leader the learning communities. The primary purpose of creating a plan for being a leader in utilizing groups is because of the increased importance that is placed by the community, as well as the students, on the essential role that principals and teachers play.

The Plan

“The role of the principal has been in a state of transition, progressing from the principal as an instructional leader or master teacher, to the principal as a transactional leader and, most recently, to the role of transformational leader.” (Chell 1) Based on this definition of how the transformation of the principal’s role and responsibilities have changed, it gives more justification in why utilizing groups is imperative to team effectiveness. This group plan will be based on five outcomes:

• All group members will have a clear understanding of the state curriculum framework in the language and English language departments, which includes essential knowledge, essential sills, and standards.
• All group members will have a comprehension of the department for mathematics; which includes the essential knowledge, essential skills, and standards.
• The group members will collaborate on the curriculum planned for the processes in implementation and lesson development, narrative writing products, explanatory, and argumentative processes.
• The group members will also collaborate on the lesson implementation and lesson development for the mathematics state curriculum framework practices.
• Working as a cross-functional group, the members will develop and implement the necessary assessments used in applying the lessons that will best work for the teachers and the students.

Applying Group Theory

Among the first steps in applying, a plan for groups is to first define the goals that the group will strive to. This is to be conducted in the forming stage, as, according to Tuckman, dependence, testing, and orientation constitute forming. (Smith 2) This type of goal setting is by means of outlining the priority, setting timelines, determining resources, and evaluation. Principals are the facilitators of change, while teachers are the active participants, it is imperative that these two variables work together in order to provide legitimate feedback, as well as time for reflection on what works, and what doesn’t for the institution.

The core objectives that are needed within the groups’ goals are assessment, instruction, and curriculum. The group, as well as the principals need to be aware of the different models of instruction, changing concepts in curriculum, and the principals of student assessments. Both the teachers and the principal works as a collective team, or as a cross-functional team. This is defined as, “members from a combination of functional subunits (e.g. quality, production, sales, and maintenance) working together on projects that require join problem-solving skills.” (Sun 610)  If the group members are not familiar with the principal, the first stage in the plan is to explore the acceptable behaviors in the group, as well as delegating tasks to each member. Once this stage has been realized, then the group is able to move on to stage two in which, the teachers, staff, and the principal, will begin to more group interaction, interdependence, cohesiveness, and trusting each other’s motives. Otherwise considered the norming stage, While this stage is more difficult within the group, it involves, “Group members are confronted with the realization that the tasks to be undertaken are different and sometimes more difficult than they had anticipated.” (Burke, Preston, Quillen, Roe, and Strong 1) The plan for the groups is to begin brainstorming, what works in the classroom, what type of curriculum works best, and the type of policies that need to be implemented within the schools. The group of members that is made up of different focuses will use this stage to listen, not only to the principal as the instructional leader but also, to the other staff and faculty members, to be more team effective.

Following the next stage of forming, the group will focus on collaboration, in the different departments throughout the school setting. The practice will facilitate their leadership role in prioritizing the goals that need to be accomplished first. In schools, this can vary; much importance will be placed on the group to devise a set curriculum for the school year. The principal will lead the group, in which will be team focused in order to ensure that there is a common ground shared among the team members. The principal will get input from the English department, mathematics department, language department, Art department, and science departments. Each group member will spend sufficient time with the principal on a rotation schedule, that ensures full engagement, aimed at planning for the future in the norming stage. For the final stage of the group, the phase will be performing. This essential for the principal, in facilitating their instructional leadership. Effective instructional leaders have to be resource providers, instructional resources, communicators, and create a visible presence. (Jenkins 36) The performing stage, for Tuckman, in group theory is where “roles become flexible and functional, and group energy is channeled into the task. Structural issues have been resolved, and structure can now become supportive of task performance.” (Tuckman 78) In this plan, the four stages are crucial to utilizing group, because it is important in this career to work and perform as a team.  The group will work throughout the year on different activities, delegating tasks and activities, in settling on the required resources, as well as how they will be implemented, and how it will be ultimately assessed. This important within in any group development, as it will be the make or break for every solution.

Reflection

The purpose of working within a group is to build team effectiveness. Not only is it imperative for the principal to be the instructional leader, but also be a transformational leader in which can be flexible in any environment, and dealing with any issue. The goals of devising this plan was to outline the expectation, goals, and contributions of the group. Nevertheless, more importantly to team build. The principal must support the group development, learn to be accountable and take responsibility, and learn to assess problems in order to find a clear solution. The principal must utilize their interpersonal skills in enhancing collegiality, giving empowerment, spurring motivation, and maintaining trust. The principal must have the trust of their fellow faculty and staff, in order to provide the community and the students with the best possible plan in delivering the academic standards needed. The principal must also have planning skills that clearly identify the vision and the goals, as well as how to apply throughout the year. In utilizing groups, the principal will act as an administrator in planning for the group, and creating an open space to communicate the message of the school. As the principal demonstrates their instructional observation skills, they must aim to provide the group with feedback they are able to use in improving or enhancing their skills. The principal will continue to be remain in the daily activities of the faculty and staff, and develop the necessary skills of evaluation and research that assess the instructional framework in to a plan of action.

This plan is practical, as well as beneficial for principals to be instructional leaders throughout their schools. This plan will provide an outline and a plan of action that will involve all members of the group to work towards a common goal of providing the best in academic standards that satisfies the needs of the students, parents, teachers, and the community. The principal must continue to be a leader and work towards developing effective teams.

Works Cited

Burke Jr., Lewis, Nancy Preston, Mike Quillen, Richard Roe, and Ella Strong. “Stages of Group Development: From Strangers to Partners.” Southern Regional Council on Educational Administration. October 2009. Print.

Bushe, Gervase R., Coetzer, Graeme H. “Group Development and Team Effectiveness.” The Journal of Applied Behavioral Science, Vol. 43 No 2. June 2007. Web. 11 December 2014. http://209.34.253.86/upload/Group%20Development%20and%20Team%20Effectiveness.pdf

Chell, Jan. “Introducing Principals to the Role Of Instructional Leadership.” SSTA Research Centre Report #95. N.d. Web. 12 December 2014. http://www.saskschoolboards.ca/research/leadership/95-14.htm#c9-4

Jenkins, Billy. “What It Takes To Be An Instructional Leader.” NAESP. January/Feburary 2009. Web. 11 December 2014. http://www.naesp.org/resources/2/Principal/2009/J-F_p34.pdf

Sun, Jun, Hurt, Kevin J. “How Different Leadership Styles Work For Different Workgroups- An Empirical Study on Adaptive Leadership. University of Texas-Pan American. 2005 Web. 11 December 2014. http://www.swdsi.org/swdsi08/paper/SWDSI%20Proceedings%20Paper%20S500.pdf

Tuckman, Bruce W. “Forming, Storming, Norming, and Performing in Groups.” InFed. 2007. Web. 11 December 2014. http://humanresources.tennessee.edu/leadership/docs/tuckman.pdf

Tuckman, Bruce, Jensen, Mary Ann C. “Stages of Small-Group Development Revisited.” Group Facilitation: A Research & Applications Journal. 10 November 2010. Print.