GROUP RESEARCH TRENDS IN SOCIAL AND ORGANIZATIONAL-PSYCHOLOGY - WHATEVER HAPPENED TO INTRAGROUP RESEARCH

We report the results of an archival study of group research published in three organizational psychology journals (Journal of Applied Psych ology, Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, and Acade my of Management Journal) from 1975 through 1994. Moreland, Hogg, and Hains (1994), in a review of three social psychology journals (Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, and Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin), suggested there is an increasing enthusiasm for the social psychological study of groups. However, their data indicated that enthusiasm for group res earch in social psychology may be primarily due to the popularity of o ne category, intergroup relations. We tested the proposal that researc h traditionally viewed as intragroup (e.g., group performance) has bee n taken lip by organizational psychologists. Our data support this con tention, as the publication pattern for intragroup research topics in the three organizational journals was an inverse of that reported by M oreland et al. Results are discussed in terms of historical and interd isciplinary trends within psychology.