ABSTRACT
This chapter provides a state-of-the-art reflection on the theory, history, and development of the "basic" group relations training (GRT) approach as it is conceptualized and practised at the "Leicester" and related conferences and courses. The "Leicester conference" is an intensive two-week residential event devoted to experiential learning about group and organizational behaviour. The first conference in 1957 was a collaborative venture of the Tavistock Institute and Leicester University, where it had strong support from the professors of adult education and sociology. The Israel Association for the Study of Group and Organizational Processes (OFEK), which the Tavistock Institute helped to establish, is a thriving institution with a growing programme of educational and consultancy activities, in addition to an annual international conference jointly sponsored by the Institute from 1988 onwards. In South Africa, formation of the Institute for the Study of Leadership and Authority (ISLA) was, like OFEK, initially supported by subsidized places at Leicester conferences.
