Validation of the German group development (GD) questionnaire

Abstract

Group Development (GD) is an important variable when researching and evaluating what makes teams successful. We analyzed the psychometric properties of the originally Spanish GD questionnaire with German participants. 501 team members and 104 team leaders, 18 to 65 years old, from a German research organization answered an online survey composed of the GD questionnaire and items related to other group processes of democracy, mutual trust, team spirit, and interest in the team's tasks. Results confirmed the unidimensional factor structure of the translated Spanish version for the German GD construct. Internal consistency, convergent and discriminant validity were good. The German GD correlated as expected to other constructs, and it showed concurrent validity with respect to the team members' motivation and interest in team tasks (r = .79, p < .01). We recommend using the GD in German samples to measure team processes that are highly relevant for team effectiveness.