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The concepts and aspects of the FIRO-B tell the tale of a powerful tool to be used and administered across a plethora of situations and environments. The FIRO-B can be seen being used in a corporate setting for team building, managerial and executive coaching, human resource efficiency, as well as improving employee and leadership output, with the goal being to create a more sound, effective, and seamless corporate structure via powerful, effective, valuable, and highly beneficial communication. The FIRO-B is also a beneficial and invaluable tool for understanding employees’ interpersonal preferences, so that managers and executives can match individuals in areas and departments where they would be best suited to relate to others for the best corporate output and company success.
Since the 1950s, the FIRO-B instrument has been a major player in the field of personality assessment and finding the best ways to guide individuals to comprehend their interpersonal preferences, including but not limited to solving unhealthy conflict at work as well as in their personal lives. However, the FIRO-B is mainly and most popularly used in a work setting.
When used within a company, FIRO-B results can give managers a closer look at how different employees prefer to work and interact with the people around them. Some individuals might naturally enjoy working closely with a group, while others are more comfortable working independently. The same is true when it comes to leadership, responsibility, and forming closer working relationships.
Understanding these differences can be helpful when putting together teams or deciding how employees might work best with one another. This does not mean that everyone on a successful team should have similar FIRO-B scores. In fact, having people with different interpersonal preferences can be useful, depending on the makeup of the team and what the group is trying to accomplish. When the results of several employees are being compared, having someone experienced with the FIRO-B review them can also help clarify how the different scores may work together.
Psychologist Will Schutz, Ph.D., created the FIRO framework as a way to look more closely at the interpersonal needs that can affect how people interact with one another. Within the FIRO-B, these needs are divided into three main areas: Inclusion, Control, and Affection.
Each of these three areas looks at a somewhat different part of interpersonal behavior. Inclusion deals mainly with belonging and taking part in activities with others. Control is more closely tied to structure, influence, responsibility, and leadership. Affection focuses more on personal closeness and one-on-one relationships.
The FIRO-B instrument provides a thorough framework for understanding interpersonal behavior by measuring six key interpersonal areas:
- Expressed Inclusion
- Wanted Inclusion
- Expressed Control
- Wanted Control
- Expressed Affection
- Wanted Affection
Looking at all six areas gives a more complete picture of someone’s interpersonal preferences. It allows you to see not only how much of a particular behavior you tend to show toward others, but also how much of that same type of behavior you would like other people to show toward you.
What are Inclusion, Control, and Affection?
In short form, the following are the main points to each of these three interpersonal needs and the behavior preferences for each:
Inclusion
To what extent do you include others in your life? Do you tend to invite others to participate in your interests and endeavors? How much or if at all do you prefer to relate to groups and teams? When part of a group, do you tend to “go solo” and work or function independently, or prefer others to be included in your work? How you score on the FIRO-B assessment in the area of inclusion will tell you whether you have a preference for the need for inclusion or have a lesser need for this interpersonal need.
It is important to point out that when reviewing your FIRO-B results with a certified interpreter with Career Assessment Site (included in your purchase), your results will not necessarily be scored as an all-or-nothing or black-and-white situation. That is, your scores might need further review and clarification in order to attain your true innate need for inclusion, control, and affection. If there is a slight difference between your Expressed Inclusion and Wanted Inclusion, this is when further exploration is necessary in order to research whether you indeed prefer the wanted or expressed need.
Looking at both of the Inclusion scores together can often tell you more than looking at either one by itself. A person may, for example, enjoy being included by others but not always be the person who takes the first step in joining a group or inviting others to participate.
Control
Do you prefer to have others structure your days and tasks? Or do you prefer to structure other teammates, co-workers’ or individuals’ days and tasks at work or otherwise? Do you prefer a management role, being in charge of subordinates (high need for control score), or do you prefer to leave others to function on their own without your managerial guidance or leadership, while also being led and managed by others (low need for control score). These questions pertain to the need for, or lack thereof, the need for control. This need is scored and explained within your FIRO-B report/results. Your results can sometimes lean toward a high need for control, a low need for control, or somewhere more in the middle of the two.
For individuals who score in the mid zone, it is important to discuss your results with a certified FIRO-B interpreter (as with a Career Assessment Site certified interpreter at no extra cost) or with an individual who is knowledgeable in the area of the FIRO-B Assessment and is either certified by the publisher of the assessment to interpret (as with Career Assessment Site), or is educationally qualified to review your results with you. That is an individual who holds a master’s degree in psychology or a related field.
It is important to point out that even though one might be educationally qualified, make sure that the individual you are working with has the know-how of The FIRO Assessment so that they can review your report with you and answer any questions you might have.
Control is not simply about whether someone wants to be “the boss.” It can also involve how much structure a person likes, how comfortable they are making decisions, and whether they prefer to provide direction or receive it from someone else.
Affection
In varying ways, we want to have attachments with friends and co-workers. However, some people prefer to show the need that goes along with emotional closeness, while others simply prefer to have this friendly intimacy directed towards them. The FIRO-B need for Affection attests to whether one prefers to be devoted, friendly, and intimate toward others or whether one wants others to be this way toward them.
Again, as with the FIRO-B needs for Control and Inclusion results may vary and one can score in the mid zone or more concretely towards one way or the other. The basis of the Affection need is based on the yearning for one-on-one relationships. How much you prefer to confide or have others confide in you. How much do you want to share intimate details about yourself with others, or do you prefer that others share their intimate details with you?
Affection, therefore, deals much more with one-on-one relationships than with belonging to a larger group. Two people can both value close relationships while differing considerably in who they prefer to have initiate that closeness.
Dimensions of Behavior: Expressed and Wanted Behavior
As scored and shown in one’s results, the FIRO-B measures two dimensions of behavior, applying each dimension to the need for Inclusion, Control, and Affection, which gives the individual completing the assessment a more detailed view of their interpersonal behavior and needs.
These two dimensions are important because what someone shows outwardly is not always the same as what they want from the people around them. Looking at both sides can reveal differences that might otherwise be overlooked.
Expressed
Your Expressed Behavior tells you how much you wish to start, introduce, or originate the act of Inclusion, Control, and Affection. It measures the act of fulfilling one of these needs in a certain way. In this case, by initiating the needs for Inclusion, Control, and Affection. High Expressed behavioral scores can be quantified—that is, high Expressed scores can be measured, or in other words, can be seen and noticed by others.
For example, Expressed Inclusion looks at how much you tend to initiate involvement with other people. Expressed Control relates more to taking responsibility, providing direction, or creating structure. Expressed Affection looks at how readily you initiate friendship, warmth, or other forms of personal closeness.
Wanted
Your Wanted Behavior tells you how much you wish to have others take the reins and introduce your needs for Inclusion, Control, and Affection. One who leans towards Wanted Behavior generally prefers their teammates, friends, and coworkers to take the initiative in fulfilling one’s preferred interpersonal relations.
For instance, if an individual has a high score for Wanted Affection, they would prefer others to take the first step in showing friendship, emotional closeness, or camaraderie. As opposed to Expressed Affection, which would generally mean that an individual would take the initiative to express their affection towards others.
This difference between Wanted and Expressed behavior can sometimes be one of the more interesting parts of a FIRO-B report. Someone may strongly want a certain type of interaction from others without showing that same behavior nearly as often themselves.
For example, a person with high Wanted Affection and lower Expressed Affection may greatly appreciate other people initiating friendship and closeness while being less likely to initiate it themselves. Likewise, a person could score relatively high in Expressed Control but lower in Wanted Control. That individual might be comfortable taking charge while not particularly wanting other people to take charge of them.
These types of differences are part of the reason it is helpful to look at the individual FIRO-B scores rather than relying only on an overall result.
FIRO-B scores are best thought of as a picture of your interpersonal preferences rather than a fixed rule about how you will act in every situation. People do not behave exactly the same way all of the time. Work responsibilities, relationships, previous experiences, and even the particular people involved in a situation can influence how someone reacts.
Because FIRO-B measures current interpersonal preferences, assessment results taken at different points in a person’s life may differ. New responsibilities, environments, relationships, and life experiences can influence how an individual approaches certain interpersonal situations. When meaningful differences appear between assessments, reviewing the individual scale scores can provide additional context for understanding what may have changed.
The individual scores can also be looked at in connection with situations that occur in everyday life. Inclusion may help explain why someone prefers more or less involvement with a group. Control can shed light on preferences involving leadership, responsibility, and structure, while Affection deals more closely with personal relationships and emotional closeness.
Looking at the scores this way can make the report easier to understand because it connects each part of the FIRO-B to recognizable situations. Someone may feel perfectly comfortable in one type of interpersonal setting while finding another less natural, and the six FIRO-B scores can sometimes help explain why.
Career Assessment Site includes a complimentary FIRO-B interpretation consultation with the assessment. During your consultation, you can go over your six scores, ask questions about Wanted and Expressed behavior, and receive clarification about terminology or portions of the report that might not immediately be clear.
It is especially useful to look at the six scores together rather than treating any single score as if it tells the whole story. Expressed Inclusion, Wanted Inclusion, Expressed Control, Wanted Control, Expressed Affection, and Wanted Affection all contribute something different to the overall results.
In many cases, the differences between Wanted and Expressed scores are just as meaningful as the scores themselves. What you would like another person to do may be quite different from what you normally initiate on your own.
Taken together, these six areas make up the heart of the FIRO-B profile and provide a much more detailed view of a person’s interpersonal preferences.