There is no doubt that the productivity of the team or any other group is the key to the successful completion of the task. This is important even when colleagues work individually and rarely engage in group activities. The psychological atmosphere among employees has a huge impact on the entire work process, and relationships will affect the overall result.
The accuracy and reliability of psychology is debatable, but the field of group dynamics is well researched, and scientists have accumulated a lot of knowledge and experience. The most accessible, easy and visual way to analyze group interaction is the method of sociometric measurements. With the help of it, the position of each element of the group in the system of relationships is determined, hidden assessments, sympathies and attachments are revealed.
History of the method
Methodology (sociometry) was created and developedAmerican scientist-psychologist J. L. Moreno. With this concept, he denoted social science, psychological theory and an empirical method of studying a group that helps to investigate and regulate relationships between people.
Today, sociology, social psychology and psychotherapy use such a technique as sociometry to study and harmonize interpersonal relationships in small groups. How to process the results is a question asked by both psychologists and HR managers. When you open the book with tests, you can find a detailed description and instructions on how and what to do.
The theoretical basis of this method was the desire of the scientist JL Moreno to explain all aspects (economic, political, etc.) of a person's social life, to operate with such concepts as emotional relations between people, likes and dislikes. The research psychologist and his students suggested that the problematic situations of society could be solved not by class distribution, but by moving people because of their emotional preference. Thus, a sociometric revolution will take place, which will make social relations harmonious.
J. L. Moreno introduced into his theory such a concept as the body, and considered it quite important. This concept means the simplest emotional unit that is transmitted from one person to another and thereby determines the number and quality of interpersonal relationships that individuals enter into.
General characteristics of sociometry
To obtain reliable data, not only the results of sociometry are important. First, you need to collect preliminary information about the study group. Secondly, to prepare questions and conduct, in fact, the sociometric survey itself. Thirdly, it is necessary to analyze and interpret the received data during the survey. Of course, this method involves the use of other methods, such as observation and statistical processing of sociometry.
An important point to remember when writing questions is that they should not be abstract, but specific, reflecting some real situation. Sociometry is carried out in teams where colleagues have been working together for a long time and have sufficient information about each other. According to time characteristics - they work for about six months. Study group size is 12-15 people.
Participation in sociometric research is only voluntary. The rules of behavior of respondents in psychological experiments are preliminarily discussed. Answers must be honest, because they will relate to the emotional side of relationships in the team. It happens that the respondent has difficulties in the process of filling out the form or does not want to answer at all. Remember that it is his right. But even such a result is important, as the methodology (sociometry) says. How to handle the results in this case? Remove this subject from the total and conduct an individual conversation with him in order to understand the reason for the refusal.
Characteristics of the group
The procedure of the sociometric method is not difficult, but it is necessary to follow the rules and norms. The basic condition is the use of personalized questionnaires, because anonymous participation will not allow subsequent interpretation of the results.
There are also some requirements for the composition of the study group. Firstly, it must have clear boundaries (employees of a certain department, team, etc.), and secondly, its existence must be at least 3 months, and preferably half a year.
It would be a mistake to conduct testing after some kind of celebration, corporate party, because for another two or three weeks the group will have emotions associated with this event, and this will lead to distortion of the survey data.
There are also certain requirements for a specialist conducting sociometric research. In no case can he be a member of the collective, but the level of trust of the group in him must be high.
Research procedure
Sociometric survey is conducted in a separate room where all the subjects gather. The manager reads the instructions and questions, and the respondents fill out the appropriate form. The question may sound like this: "Who will you invite to your birthday, and who do you not want to see at your holiday?" The subject chooses three to be included in the group and three to be excluded. Options "no one" and "all" are not accepted. Choosing someone fromemployees, the test subject writes in front of his name why he did it and the characteristics of the person (in his opinion).
The essence of the question itself can be different, because the main thing is a clear, unambiguous and simple wording. The text should correspond to the age of the group members, their interests and level of development. Here is the procedure for such a method as sociometry. How to process the results, you can learn further. This is very important.
Building a sociometric matrix
Help on the processing of sociometry includes a special matrix, which is understood as a table with the results of the choices made by the subjects. On the left side, the names of employees are entered vertically and exactly the same way horizontally on top of the table.
Also, all additional information about the characteristics of the subjects is transferred to the table.
Sociogram - a graphical expression of sociometric data
Of course, a manager is unlikely to have a global scientific goal, so there is no need to calculate the sociometric status at all. It will be enough for the manager to derive the general values of choices and refusals according to the "Sociometry" method. Any psychologist will tell you how to process the results in such a situation. A sociogram is a visualized survey results. It is convenient, since you can schematically see all the relationships in the team.
Conclusion
The presented method is simple and easy to use, does not require additional financial or other costs. It was invented at the beginning of the 20th century by J. L. Moreno, and to this day he is especially popular in social psychology.
