GROUP DEVELOPMENT .1. A REVIEW AND SYNTHESIS OF DEVELOPMENT MODELS

This is the first of two parts that examine the issue of group develop ment and its impact on the study and design of group support systems ( GSS). We review the various models of group development, analyze the s ources of differences among these models, and synthesize common themes across various models. The paper concludes with a meta-framework for understanding group development; this framework highlights the two are as of focus that have dominated group development research in the past : group processes and outcomes. The second paper will build on the ide as developed here and discuss the implications of group development fo r GSS research. Previous research on group behavior suggests that grou ps' change over time; patterns of change, referred to as group develop ment models, have been an important area of study for the past four de cades. For the first three of these decades, unitary models of group d evelopment were very popular; that is, the notion that all groups go t hrough a certain series of predefined stages. In the last decade, howe ver, researchers have cast;doubt on such unitary models of group devel opment. Nonsequential models that recognize the uniqueness of each gro up (and consequently reject the idea of a single, predetermined series of stages) have become increasingly popular. This paper examines the implications of these issues for researchers and managers of groups. I t also attempts to serve as the foundation for the propositions develo ped in the next paper, in which the relevance of group development for GSS research and practice are discussed.