Group Dynamics and Processes

Input–Process–Outcome Models of Group Effectiveness

Most attempts to understand group dynamics implicitly or explicitly take an IPO perspective. Inputs refer to what is given at the outset of task performance. Inputs include factors that flow from team composition—such as group member personality, knowledge, skills, and abilities—but also factors that are more external to the team—such as the organizational context in which the group performs its tasks. Processes refer to what actually takes place in the group during task performance, highlight what happens in the interaction between group members, and underscore group members' thoughts and feelings about the group and group task performance. Obviously, the focus in trying to understand group processes is on factors that may be assumed to affect desirable and undesirable outcomes of group interaction. Outcomes in principle are all variables that might be influenced by group inputs and group processes. Not surprisingly, however, in I/O psychology the emphasis typically is on group outcomes that can be seen as indicators of group effectiveness, such as group productivity and performance, or on variables that may be seen as more distal indicators of effective group functioning such as group member turnover and satisfaction.

Originally, group processes were understood within this IPO perspective as being caused by group inputs. Group process was primarily seen as the mechanism explaining the relationship between group inputs and group outcomes. An alternative perspective in which group processes are seen as mechanisms that may be influenced to affect the relationship between group inputs and group outcomes is equally viable, however. In the latter perspective, specific group processes are not seen as the more or less inevitable consequence of particular input factors but rather as mechanisms that may be influenced, for example, by team leadership or management practices, in attempts to achieve positive group outcomes and prevent negative group outcomes. Importantly, the perspectives do not contradict each other. Particular group inputs may be likely to engender specific group processes, whereas at the same time group interventions may render these associations between inputs and outcomes more or less likely. For research and practice in group dynamics, it is therefore important to understand both how group input may affect group processes, and group outcomes through group process, and how group processes may be used to translate group inputs into desirable outcomes.

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