Groupthink
While we sit in a group do you ever feel like a sheep lost in a crowd, like your opinions or voice just don’t matter; groupthink can make individuals feel that way. This week on Wikipedia I learned that groupthink “is a psychological phenomenon that occurs within a group of people, in which the desire for harmony or conformity in the group results in an incorrect or deviant decision-making outcome.” (Wikipedia) Groupthink is really a loss of individual creativity and uniqueness as well as a gain for group creativity. Most examples of groupthink come from looking back at American history as well as in our everyday lives. This essay is designed to define groupthink to readers as well as give examples of groupthink and gives examples of how to prevent groupthink in the workplace.
So now that we know the definition of group think next we should figure out what groupthink means. Loyalty you a group really requires the individuals in that group to try not to raise any controversial issues. Groupthink is a constant part of social psychology; as well as a controversial subject. Many individual creative ideas are lost because the individuals in the group are creating group ideas and often some individual ideas may be lost in the crowd. Group members are trying to reach a good decision without doing a critical evaluation or considering alternative ideas.
Groupthink has many examples of how it is used in everyday life for example in political and military decisions. Sometimes military commanders and politicians make poor decisions in a group setting. For example the Bay of Pigs Invasion, the Watergate scandal and the Vietnam War; even the US administrations view on Saddam Hussein that led to the 2003 invasion of Iraq. As well as the attack on Pearl Harbor. As well as military and political decision groupthink is often present in the corporate world. The effects of ineffective group decision making can really affect the growth and health of a company. As well as in an office setting for example the company I work at sells manufactured and modular homes, if we make a poor group decision in the corporate office it affects every office immensely. In the corporate work place and everyday life we see groupthink all of the time.
Groupthink can be prevented. There are a few ways such as leaders assigning each member the role of critical evaluator this lets the members of the group freely air their doubts; as well as giving a chance for individualism. Leaders should not express opinions while assigning a task to the group this causes individuals to lean more towards the leader’s opinion. We actually see this in the school setting quite a bit. For example if your professor stated how much he or she liked a certain subject and wanted the students to write a paper on that subject. As students we would then write about the positive side of the subject rather than evaluating it with our own ideas and deciding for ourselves weather or not we enjoyed the subject or form our own opinions about it. Organizations should set up separate groups to work on the same problem this way all effective alternatives can be fairly examined. Along with this each member should discuss the ideas with people outside of the group to not only get other opinions but if done successfully expert opinions.
Readers should now have a full knowledge of what groupthink consist of along with examples of groupthink in everyday life as well as how to prevent groupthink in your workplace. In my personal opinion I believe that groupthink will continue being a controversial topic for psychology (my major) along with work place settings everywhere. As readers have learned groupthink is very important and it is equally important as business professionals to avoid groupthink.
Resources:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Groupthink
While we sit in a group do you ever feel like a sheep lost in a crowd, like your opinions or voice just don’t matter; groupthink can make individuals feel that way. This week on Wikipedia I learned that groupthink “is a psychological phenomenon that occurs within a group of people, in which the desire for harmony or conformity in the group results in an incorrect or deviant decision-making outcome.” (Wikipedia) Groupthink is really a loss of individual creativity and uniqueness as well as a gain for group creativity. Most examples of groupthink come from looking back at American history as well as in our everyday lives. This essay is designed to define groupthink to readers as well as give examples of groupthink and gives examples of how to prevent groupthink in the workplace.
So now that we know the definition of group think next we should figure out what groupthink means. Loyalty you a group really requires the individuals in that group to try not to raise any controversial issues. Groupthink is a constant part of social psychology; as well as a controversial subject. Many individual creative ideas are lost because the individuals in the group are creating group ideas and often some individual ideas may be lost in the crowd. Group members are trying to reach a good decision without doing a critical evaluation or considering alternative ideas.
Groupthink has many examples of how it is used in everyday life for example in political and military decisions. Sometimes military commanders and politicians make poor decisions in a group setting. For example the Bay of Pigs Invasion, the Watergate scandal and the Vietnam War; even the US administrations view on Saddam Hussein that led to the 2003 invasion of Iraq. As well as the attack on Pearl Harbor. As well as military and political decision groupthink is often present in the corporate world. The effects of ineffective group decision making can really affect the growth and health of a company. As well as in an office setting for example the company I work at sells manufactured and modular homes, if we make a poor group decision in the corporate office it affects every office immensely. In the corporate work place and everyday life we see groupthink all of the time.
Groupthink can be prevented. There are a few ways such as leaders assigning each member the role of critical evaluator this lets the members of the group freely air their doubts; as well as giving a chance for individualism. Leaders should not express opinions while assigning a task to the group this causes individuals to lean more towards the leader’s opinion. We actually see this in the school setting quite a bit. For example if your professor stated how much he or she liked a certain subject and wanted the students to write a paper on that subject. As students we would then write about the positive side of the subject rather than evaluating it with our own ideas and deciding for ourselves weather or not we enjoyed the subject or form our own opinions about it. Organizations should set up separate groups to work on the same problem this way all effective alternatives can be fairly examined. Along with this each member should discuss the ideas with people outside of the group to not only get other opinions but if done successfully expert opinions.
Readers should now have a full knowledge of what groupthink consist of along with examples of groupthink in everyday life as well as how to prevent groupthink in your workplace. In my personal opinion I believe that groupthink will continue being a controversial topic for psychology (my major) along with work place settings everywhere. As readers have learned groupthink is very important and it is equally important as business professionals to avoid groupthink.
Resources:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Groupthink
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