Disengaging from a distributed research project: Refining a model of group departures

Understanding how groups end and how group members depart helps us understand how these ending and departure processes affect group outcomes, individualsʹ willingness and ability to work in subsequent groups together or with others, and the maintenance of group-generated knowledge over time. In this article, a distributed, grant-funded research project group provides the setting for an analysis of the process that members went through as they disengaged from and dismantled their group when the funding period ended and the project was winding down. Qualitative interviews with group members were analyzed using a model of disengaging that was developed in an earlier study. The model comprises 12 interwoven parts of a disengaging process that begins well before the group ends and extends beyond the official termination of the group. The model frames the analysis and is revised as a result of the research findings.