Tanya Schankel
MGT300 – Principles of Management
Colorado State University – Global Campus
Melinda Curley
August 23, 2015 Leadership and Teams - Conformity
Leaders want their team to achieve goals that will promote the company vision, but not every leadership style will produce the desired outcome and performance of a team. Teams themselves are dynamic and have their own inner-workings that need to be satisfied before they become a cohesive group. Robbins, DeCenzo, & Coulter describe this process as forming, norming, storming, performing, and eventually adjourning (2015). One leadership style that is capable of encouraging performance and effectiveness of a team is the transactional leader which is …show more content…
According to S. Lumbert, of Rochester Institute of Technology, people will withhold their opinion if it differs from the rest of the group to avoid looking foolish or wrong. Another act of conformity is through peer pressure, where someone will do something they normally would not do in order to fit in and be liked (2005). Most people conform to group norms and pressure. In fact, we all conform in one way or another every day, multiple times a day. Consider how you get to work. Do you arrive on time or late? Do you park in a parking space or on the sidewalk? Do you wear appropriate clothing or do you show up in your swimsuit? The reality is, conformity is everywhere, without it there would be chaos.
Conformity in the workplace can be a good thing if the right behaviors are modeled and team members feel pressure from the group to comply. For example, team members who consistently arrive late and unprepared may soon find themselves working on another assignment on their own if they do not improve their behavior to be more like the rest of the …show more content…
Organizational gaols can be achieved when the right leadership style is paired with people that can be formed and guided into a cohesive, motivated, and performing team.
References
Lumbert, S. P. (2005). Conformity and group mentality: Why we comply (Peer commentary). Retrieved from http://www.personalityresearch.org/papers.html
McCleskey, J. A. (2014). Situational, transformational, and transactional leadership and leadership development, Journal of Business Studies Quarterly, 5(4), 117-130
Robbins, S., DeCenzo, D., & Coulter, M. (2015). Fundamentals of Management: Essential Concepts and Applications (9th ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall.: