Fundamental Interpersonal Relations Orientation: Behaviour

FUNDAMENTAL INTERPERSONAL RELATIONS
ORIENTATION - BEHAVIOUR
(FIRO - B)

Prepared by,
Abhishek K. Mathew INTRODUCTION
Fundamental Interpersonal Relations Orientation – Behaviour or FIRO-B was developed by Dr. William Schutz in the year 1958. The test measures the interaction between people with a purpose of instituting highly effective teams by discovering the team members’ needs for inclusion, affection and control. It helps people understand their interpersonal needs and its influence on their communication style and behaviour. This test was initially used to predict and understand how high-performance military teams would work together.
FIRO – B measures three key areas of interpersonal need: namely Inclusion, Control and

The purpose of the test was to measure the client’s interpersonal relationships along with other dimensions, namely, expressed Inclusion, expressed affection, expressed control, wanted inclusion, wanted control and wanted affection.
The client has a score of 5 for Expressed Inclusion, which is interpreted as Medium, based on the range mentioned above. This means that he is willing to include others in his team and work with others.
The client gets a Wanted Inclusion of 2 which is interpreted as Low based on the range. This means that his need to be included by others is interpreted as low. He either takes an initiative to join other group, or that he is selective about the groups that he associates with.
For Expressed Control, he gets a score of 8, which is interpreted as High. This means that he initiates or likes taking responsibilities. This could be based on his need to take initiatives or his need to take more risks and challenges and grow from them.
For Wanted Control, he gets a score of 5, which is also interpreted as Medium. This means that he is willing to be controlled by others. He is willing to work under another person and take instructions and directions. As this score is medium, he is not interested to too much of control or too less of a control; a balance is

For example, not always he would want to be controlled and this would be completely based on the mental situation that he is in.

APPLICATIONS
The FIRO -B test is used in relationship counselling, as understand and improve the incompatibility and disatisfaction faced in the relationship
This is test is also used in Individual Development, where this helps him to become more aware about his needs for different situations. He helps him to improve his interpersonal effectiveness, personal growth and career development.
This can also be used for Recruitment and Selection to hire appropriate people with desired personality. Based on this the interviews could be structured to assess his personal strength and his desire to grow from his existing state.
By understanding the client’s leadership style, his decision making capability, his inclusion and control styles the score interpretation can be used for better team building and team development activities.

CONCLUSION
The client has low discrepancies between the expressed and wanted needs. Also it srikes a balance between the expressed and medium scores, which makes him take the position as that of a team