The Forgotten Group Member

Part 1-

Christine’s group seems to have gone through the many stages of development, however Mike seemed to not fully progress as the other members did. At the stage they are in their project all members have completed their work, interacted both inside and outside of the project setting except for Mike. Mike seems to be still in the storming stage. This stage is where members struggle to deal with their expectations and their status within the groups, while the others are in the total integration stage of being organized and functioning well together (Schermerhorn, 165). Groups always seem to progress through these stages of development and knowing the stages could have helped Christine greatly. Knowing these stages could have helped her to effectively evaluate where they were as a team, but also to evaluate where each team member was within the group. With this knowledge Christine may have been able to notice the stage that Mike was stuck in and either have notified her professor or did something to help him to progress in development.
Part 2- The group is facing social loafing from Mike. This is when an individual does less than what the other members are doing (Schermerhorn, 154). As this is the primary problem within the group and for Christine it comes with a secondary problem and that is the fact that Mike has figured out that the others will pick up the slack and therefore it is easier to just opt out of doing any real work. (Schermerhorn, 154). There may be more to Mike that Christine is also not fully understanding. Mike could be withdrawing because he is uncertain over his tasks and this could come from an ambiguous agenda or his roles not clearly being defined (Schermerhorn, 155). It is Christine’s job to make sure he feels confident in what he is doing and that there is no misunderstanding on his end or that he has no problems of doing what he has been assigned and this can be looked at through the FIRO-B theory (Schermerhorn, 162). As we have learned through our LSI, everyone has different strengths and weaknesses and it is important to understand what those may be in every group member.
Part 3- Even with the deadline for the group’s project only a week away, there is still time to mend the group relationship and create a successful overall project. The first solution for the group is for Christine to schedule a time with Mike when it works for him. Christine was selected and accepted as the group leader so she needs to take the responsibility of this. Once she is able to sit with him and meet she can discuss any hurdles he may have with his assignments in this group in a more trusting one to one manner. At this time Christine can identify any problems and what is holding him back from getting things done. Once those have been addressed a plan can then be laid out of what he needs to do and by when it has to be done. If he needs help getting this done for an important reason, Christine can then address this and provide him with the help he may need. Like the text discusses, we never know what problems the individual may be facing if it is never addressed. This gives Mike the time to express any problems or concerns and gives him the opportunity to seek help if needed. Mike has expressed he was having some person issues so there may be more beyond that. This solution represents the pros of solving a problem and also gaining trust and giving encouragement that may help Mike to progress in his stages of group development allowing him to become more productive within the team. However, there are cons to this solution. Mike could simply say that he is fine and not let Christine in to what is going on or preventing him from getting his work done. He has been allowed to slack off already and may just find that it is the easier route if he has lost all motivation and