The Science of Group and Organizational Processes

Abstract

This article is the first of a pair about the representation of group and organizational processes. The article begins with a model of the science of group and organizational processes. It depicts the main subcommunities and how their interdependence affects their progress. This interdependence would be improved if there was a common definition and representation for group and organizational processes. Recognizing that there are many existing concepts of group and organizational processes and several efforts to create a representation, it is clear that more work is required. A common representation of group and organizational processes ought to meet five criteria in order to be feasible. Then, to select among the feasible candidates, a set of ten desiderata for comparing, contrasting, and synthesizing them is presented. The second article in this series derives a working common representation of group and organizational processes.