Although social workers usually have many individuals as clients, each individual is part of groups: family, neighbourhood, (former) school class, workplace, sports club or any other group. Within those groups there are (group) processes and between those groups there are processes. It is therefore important that the social worker learns through practice to become aware of those processes or how group dynamics work.

Research into group dynamics can be useful for understanding decision-making behavior, the development of addiction, choice of clothing, etc. Sometimes certain behaviors are better understood if the group in which that behavior occurs is known: if a child learns habits at school, that child takes those new habits home; if there is no room for relaxation at work, an employee can take stress home with him.

Because there are, as it were, positive forces going on in groups and negative forces, there is dynamics. But a social worker can also become aware of the phase in which someone is in a process, because first there is, as it were, group formation, then storming, normalization, performance and finally a goodbye. Furthermore, members of a group fulfill roles and have relationships with each other. Subgroups can be distinguished by observing the interrelationships. Moreover, groups can be tight-knit or loose. If it is very loosely, one also speaks of a category instead of a group: women form a category in society. A group influences the individual and the individual influences the group.

By not so much learning about group dynamics, but by trying to experience it, you can recognize it more quickly as a social worker. This can be done by role-playing and paying attention to everyone’s share in the game, in particular also paying attention to their own share in the game.

Group dynamics are always there, because body language, clothing, expressions and the like all say something about group context. It can therefore happen that a client speaks English to the social worker and Dutch at home or appears to the social worker in casual clothes and appears in a tight suit at work.