Development of a questionnaire for assessing the functions informal subgroups perform in relation to the work group

The paper presents the results of assessing validity and reliability of a questionnaire designed to measure three key functions of informal subgroups in relation to a small work group, namely: (1) implementing group tasks; (2) within group positioning and influence; and (3) organizing group activity. The questionnaire contains three subscales to assess the corresponding functions of informal subgroups. Three experienced psychologists assessed content validity of the questionnaire. In addition, 290 employees from 49 working groups (departments, sectors, production units, etc.) of various organizations took part in the pilot testing and validation study of the developed questionnaire and of the associated tool for identifying informal subgroups — within the software package “Group Profile — Universal. Descriptive statistics (means and standard deviations) and Cronbach’s alpha α were calculated, and confirmatory factor analysis was performed. The questionnaire evaluation procedure was carried out separately for the data obtained: (a) among those sample participants who were included in informal subgroups and (b) for the entire sample. The study shows that in both cases the questionnaire has adequate content validity and confirms a three-factor structure of the questionnaire with every subscale being internally consistent. The questionnaire can be used to solve research and applied problem alike. Its application will allow researchers to expand their understanding of the role of informal subgroups in the life and functioning of work groups. Practitioners (psychologists and human resource professionals) will be able to assess the prevalence of the functions of each subgroup or of a set of subgroups and, based on outcomes of such assessment, purposefully build their work with subgroups in order to improve joint activities and increase performance effectiveness of work groups.