Critically discuss the factors which contribute to building cohesive groups/teams.
The purpose of the essay is to discuss what factors can contribute to building cohesive groups. There are many factors which can be useful in developing perfectionism within a group. These factors are as follow: membership and work environment factors, organisational factors and group development and maturity. Meredith Belbin’s nine team roles also determine the degree to which cohesiveness is maintained. In order to discuss these factors, this essay will define what a group team is and present two different kinds of groups. Second, some of these factors contributing to success of group work will be described. Next, this essay will also focus on the role of …show more content…

Tuckman introduced five stages which build cohesiveness within a team and these are as follow: forming, storming, norming, performing and adjourning. Every group begins its process from forming, and in this stage people meet, and start to know each other better. Storming occurs when individuals divide tasks between each other. In this case they can compete with each other. In the norming stage, relationships are created and in performing the task is performed. Adjourning is the last stage where individuals encounter feelings such as: sadness or anxiety. The task is done and they live the current group in order to create another one (Bratton at al. 2010).Thus cohesiveness of the group can be obtained when the group comes through all the five stages.
Meredith Belbin introduced nine team roles which can also help in building cohesiveness within a group. These team roles are: plant, co-ordinator, team worker, specialist, evaluator, monitor, resource investigator, shaper, and completer. Each of the team roles have a specific task to do. For example: specialist provides and delivers knowledge to the group (Mullins, 2010). Therefore cohesiveness can be achieved only when the group members will play all the nine roles.
However all the factors are important in building cohesiveness within a group, they can have negative impact on the success of team work. Too much cohesiveness in the team can cause hostility, competition with