Group-as-a-whole as a context for studying individual behaviour: A group diagnostic intervention

Orientation: Traditionalists view group interventions from three perspectives: singletons,dyads and whole groups. The focus of this research was on interventions from the thirdperspective, that of the whole group, using a systems psychodynamic stance.Research purpose: The purpose of the research was to use group-as-a-whole to study individualbehaviour in organisations.Motivation for the study: Team research and practice is not on a par with the complexities thatteams actually experience. Traditional group interventions use humanistic and functionalisticparadigms that do not consider the unconscious functioning of groups. Interventions thatuse the system psychodynamic paradigm could address these dynamics because they studybehaviour of individual group members in the context of the group-as-a-whole.Research design, approach and method: The researcher conducted action research in apublishing company. He used purposive sampling and analysed the data using qualitativecontent analysis.Main findings: The researcher found that the group-as-a-whole partly explains the behaviourof team members and that intervening from this perspective could improve negativerelationships.Practical/managerial implications: Managers can use interventions that use the groupas-a-whole concept as a diagnostic intervention to study and possibly change the complexbehavioural issues that team members experience.Contribution/value-add: The findings give one an understanding of the behaviour of individualgroup members when one views it from a systems psychodynamic stance. Furthermore, theresearcher proposes a group diagnostic intervention that will allow some of the root causes ofpoor interpersonal behaviour to surface and group members to diagnose and take ownershipof their own behaviour.