Notes on the FIRO-B (Fundamental Interpersonal Relations

Orientation-Behavior Needs)
History, Reliability and Validity of the FIRO-B Instrument
History
The Fundamental Interpersonal Relations OrientationBehavior (FIRO-B) instrument
was created in the late 1950s by William Schutz, PhD. Schutz developed the FIRO-B
theory to aid in the understanding and predicting of how high-performance military teams
would work together.
In developing the FIRO-B theory, Schutz began with the premise that "people need
people." He used the term interpersonal to indicate any interaction, real or imagined,
occurring between people. He used the term need to describe a psychological condition
that, if not satisfied, leads to a state of discomfort or anxiety.
In addition to his own observations of group behavior, Schutz was influenced by the
psychological literature, including the works of Freud, Adorno, Fromm, Adler, and Jung,
among others. He posited that interpersonal needs could be grouped into three categories:
Inclusion, Control, and Affection. The FIRO-B model describes the interaction of these
three categories of interpersonal need along two dimensions: expressed and wanted.
CPP, Inc., began publishing the FIRO-B instrument in the 1960s. The FIRO-B
Interpretive Report for Organizations was published in 1996, and the Leadership Report
Using FIRO-B and MBTI was published in 1999. In 2002, the FIRO-B assessment
became available via the Internet using CPPs online assessment delivery system, the
SkillsOne Web site. CPP has also published a variety of support materials for business
and clinical applications in the past two decades, including the FIRO-B Technical
Guide.
The FIRO-B assessment is used in a wide variety of applications including:
Leadership development
Team building
Individual interpersonal effectiveness
Retention
The FIRO-B instrument can also be used in conjunction with the MBTI instrument for
leadership development with the Leadership Report Using FIRO-B and MBTI and in
team-building workshops.

Reliability and Validity

The FIRO-B instrument measures behaviors driven by interpersonal needs in three areas

Inclusion, Control, and Affectionand addresses how such behaviors can affect ones
interactions with others (Hammer & Schnell, 2000). The FIRO-B model is based on the
theory that fulfillment of these interpersonal needs serves as motivation in peoples daily
functioning.
The need for Inclusion refers to the extent to which individuals need to have social
interactions and associations with others. The need for Control refers to the extent to
which individuals want to lead and influence others as well as the extent to which they
prefer to be led and influenced (Hammer & Schnell, 2000). The need for Affection refers
to the emotional connections between people and the extent to which individuals seek to
establish relationships with others, particularly one-on-one relationships (Waterman &
Rogers, 1996).
The FIRO-B instrument measures the extent to which each of these interpersonal needs is
expressed or wanted (Schnell & Hammer, 1993). Expressed needs refer to behaviors
individuals demonstrate toward others, whereas wanted needs refer to behaviors
individuals prefer to have exhibited toward them by others (Schutz, 1958).
The FIRO-B instrument also measures overall needs (e.g., Total Inclusion) and overall
behaviors (e.g., Total Expressed), and provides an Overall Interpersonal Need Score.
Respondents receive a numerical score as well as a categorical score (low, medium, or
high) for each measure.
The current norm sample for the FIRO-B instrument includes a U.S. national sample of
3,091 individuals who took the assessment in 1997 (Hammer & Schnell, 2000). In
examining the internal consistency reliability of each measure for the national sample,
results indicate that reliability coefficients for all measures are satisfactory, ranging from .
85 to .96. Test-retest reliability coefficients also demonstrate good reliabilityranging
from .71 to .85for three different samples reported in the FIRO-B Technical Guide
(Hammer & Schnell, 2000).
Research results also support the validity of the instrument. A number of studies have
shown the FIRO-B assessment to be related to measures of leadership (e.g., Fiedlers
Least Preferred Co-worker scale, -.43 to .46), personal value such as community service
(.05 to .27), and relationships/friendships (-.03 to .27) (Hammer & Schnell, 2000).
Additionally, relationships are also found with assessments such as the MBTI Form M
instrument (-.56 to .29) and the CPI instrument (-.48 to .51) (Hammer & Schnell,
2000).
The basic idea behind the FIRO-B concept was first proposed by Schutz* (1958):
people need people and individuals seek to establish compatible
relationships with others in their social interactions. As people form
relationships and begin striving for compatibility in interactions, three
*

Schutz, W.C. FIRO: A three-dimensional theory of interpersonal behavior. New York: Holt, Rinehart
& Winston, 1958.

interpersonal need develop that must be satisfied if the individual is to

function effectively and avoid unsatisfactory relationships.
Need for inclusion--everyone needs to maintain relations with other people, need to be
included in their activities, and to include them in their own activities. To some extent all
people seek to belong to some group, and also to be left alone on occasion. There is
always a tendency toward extroversion and introversion. They thus differ in the strength
of their relative needs in this area.
Need for control--refers to the need to maintain a satisfactory balance of power and
influence in relationships. Exerting control, influence, direction over others while
remaining independent from them. Trade-off between authoritarianism and dependency.
Need for affection--the need to form close personal relationships with others. Not
restricted to physical affection or romantic relationships but includes need for warmth,
intimacy, and love apart from overt behaviors. All individuals need closeness but wish to
avoid being smothered.
Each has two aspects: desire to express the need and a desire to receive the needed
behavior from others. These three needs determine an individual's interpersonal
orientation.
Scores on the test range from 0 to 9 for each of the six sub-cells and the national averages
and ranges are shown on the following page. One way to interpret your scores is to
compare them to these national norms. At least 50 per cent of adults fall into the ranges
shown (e.g., 4 to 7) and the numbers below these ranges (e.g., 5.4) refer to the average.
Fifty per cent of adults score within 1.5 points of these average scores. If you scored 6 in
the expressed control cell, for instance, you score higher than 75 per cent of people on
that need; if you scored a 2 in the expressed affection cell, you scored lower than 75 per
cent of the population. The score in the lower right-hand side is the social interaction
index. The highest possible is 54 (9 times 6 cells) and individuals with high scores have
strong needs to interact with other people. More likely to be gregarious, friendly, and
involved with others. Low scorers are more typically shy and reserved.

Inclusion
Expressed
Toward
Others (e)
Wanted
From
Others (w)
Column
Totals

4 to 7
5.4

5 to 8
6.5

9 to 15
11.9

Control

Affection

Row

2 to 5
3.9

3 to 6
4.1

9 to 18
13.4

3 to 6
4.6

3 to 6
4.6

11 to 20
15.9

5 to 11
8.5

6 to 12
8.9

20 to 38
29.3

Business school students differ significantly: accounting and systems had social
interaction index means of 22 and 23 respectively, while marketing and HR majors had
means of 31 and 32. Engineers and finance were in the middle of these scores.
The greatest usefulness of the scores lies in comparing compatibility among individuals-matching scores among persons.
One popular compatibility index is called the
reciprocal incompatibility:
Manager's e - Subordinate's w + Subordinate's e - Manager's w
The straight lines indicate absolute values. Using the following illustration of a
"manager's" scores and a "subordinate's" score, we may compute the reciprocal index in
the inclusion area using the above formula.
Manager
Inclusion
Control
Affection
Expressed
9
9
1
Wanted
8
4
4
Subordinate
Expressed
3
8
6
Wanted
2
2
8
9 - 2 + 3 - 8 = 12 Any score higher than six (6) has been interpreted to
imply that there is a strong possibility of incompatibility between individuals. Higher
absolute scores mean greater incompatibility.
Studies have found that among
interpersonally compatible groups or teams there exist some of the following
characteristics:
more interpersonal attraction among members
more positive group climate, less hostility
more productivity, fewer errors
faster problem solving
Knowing interpersonal orientations is thus important to managerial success. As a
manager some problems may be solved by increasing inclusion activities, by allowing
someone else to express a bit more control, or by redefining an issue as an affection
problem instead of a control problem.