Leadership blog8

The theory indicates the core problems of the group development, but there might be cultural differences in it.

My club activity group, which is for running club in my Japanese university, might be in the first stage of Peck's community development theory. It has aa feature of the first stage, which is a tendency to avoid conflicts. 

My group is not a competitive club, and member's purposes of participation in the organization are so different each other. Someone is running for making friends, but others join the club for losing her weights. The club welcomes all people even though they cannot continually participate the meetings. At a glance, the organization runs well because everyone follow the rules and their responsibilities. We talk each other friendly. However, it just "looks like". These good points are not results of the authentic teamwork because we do not relate each other so deeply. 

The group has a big difficult point, which is " the difference in purposes" between members, so it shows up in the attitudes of members toward the activities. The club can go on because members do not need to be in conflicts, so it does not develop.

The circumstance has been structured by a Japanese cultural feature, which is to outweigh of harmony among people. We are likely to identify that a group is good if it is harmonized. Japanese people dislike conflicts and arguments, so we would be satisfied with harmonized atmosphere though there is no progress. 

Thus, we should disclose what we think to grow our community. I believe that Japanese groups might try to go back the first stage if it steps into the second one; the chaotic stage. 

Nevertheless, we should not be afraid speaking up our opinions because we have different views and feelings under harmonized communities. It would cause critical conflicts in the future such like the destructions of the group in the worst case. Therefore, it is necessary for my club team's development is have shared purpose and encourage members to show up the meetings regularly. in the situation, consensus would work for member's participations. I think the group should not be strict, so it is better to have rules, which every member should follow it at least.