Question Description

12 Angry Men depicted a newly formed working group – a collection of men from disparate walks of life, education levels, and ages who had nothing in common with one another except for the fact that they had all been selected to sit on this particular jury. The men did not even know one another’s names.

In contrast, the men in Apollo 13 had been working together for years. They worked so closely that Tom Hanks, as Jim Lovell on film, at one point brags that the men can anticipate one another’s movements. Let’s identify how the two films highlight small group development and compare and contrast the effectiveness of an immature group to a more mature one.

To prepare for this assignment, please review the stages of small group development: Forming, Storming, Norming, Performing, and Adjourning in “40 years of storming: a historical review of Tuckman's model of small group development. (Links to an external site.)Links to an external site.” [PDF File, 132KB]

Please answer the following in a well-written essay of no fewer than 750 words, in APA format (Links to an external site.)Links to an external site.:

1. How do the two groups (the jury in 12 Angry Men and the men from NASA in Apollo 13) illustrate the concepts we have learned regarding small group development?
2. Compare and contrast the groups depicted in the two films.
3. What advantages does a mature group have, and what examples can you point to from each film that illustrate those advantages?