One concept that I found to be the most interesting was Grupthink. There is a possibility of making a horrible decision that may come back and haunt a group for quite a while. Janis’s examples of the Cuban Missile Crisis and the Watergate break-in relates to this fact. A group may make an immediate response instead of taking the time to think about it. They don’t think about other possible alternatives and consequences from making a particular decision. By making a rapid decision, a group may think that it will be a complete success which is not always the case. The possibility of failure never crosses their mind as a group are satisfied with the decision making process.
In group think, not everyone’s opinions are heard. Some group members are pressured to conform or agree with the majority decision. The problem is that the leader won’t bother listening to other people’s suggestions. As a result, there is no group cohesion at all which certainly leads to decision making mistakes. The best way to succeed in a group is to discuss all the ideas thoroughly and take into account everyone’s contrasting viewpoints.
Hi Ari,
ReplyDeleteI completely agree with everything you said in your post. I think Groupthink is an important concept related to small group communication and I am glad you blogged about it because I think it is something we all experience at one time or another. Most of the time, we fall into this because we are in a hurry to make a unanimous decision.
You are totally right when you say that groupthink leads to bad decision making because a decision is not thought out and because everyone's decisions and input are not heard and taken into consideration. Instead, consensus is quickly reached before analyzing and evaluating all possible thoughts.
Since I grew up in Canada, I'm not that familiar with Kennedy and Cuba so I looked it up online and realized that it is indeed a great example of this concept. It seems that after the Bay of Pigs events, President Kennedy wanted to avoid Groupthink during the Cuban Missile Crisis and instead of coming to a hasty decision, he sought outside expertise and encouraged members to discuss the events.
Thanks for a wonderful blog post and also for teaching me something about history :)
Molly