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Insight on group dynamics
Insight on group dynamics
Importance of communication in decision making process
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The surest way to avoid the Abilene Paradox is to voice your opinion. Those who oppose and/or are uncomfortable with a decision should, acknowledge their displeasure. Effective communication is essential, especially when making decisions. A lack of communication may serve as a hindrance to a group’s progression. Free will grant us the opportunity to either agree or disagree. Contrary to popular belief, it is more than acceptable to disagree with the majority rule. According to Thompson (2011), “The majority rule ignores member’s strengths of preference for alternatives”, (p. 157). Majority rule may also encourage the formation of coalitions, or subgroups within a team (Thompson, 2011, p.157). When individual team members are intimidated …show more content…
Yes, I had my fair share of encounters with the Abilene Paradox. Let us rewind back to my undergraduate days, shall we. November 1, 2011 is the date that resonates with me the most. Professor, Washington informed us that she would be pairing the students up in groups for a group project. She was fully aware that students would show favoritism and choose to work exclusively with their friends and/or associates. Professor, Washington countered this by orchestrating random groups. The purpose of the random groups was to pair students off with those whom were unfamiliar. This obviously did not sit well with most students because it forced them to meet new people. The theme was to choose a foreign country and explain how its culture was similar and how it differed from the United States. Professor, Washington paired me with three other students, but I only knew one prior to the project. Initially, everyone suggested a country, but failed to reach an agreement. After about twenty minutes of arguing what country we would research, Chris suggested that we look into Thailand. At that moment, we just all looked at each other and said, “Yeah, ok. In hindsight, we only agreed with Chris because he had the reputation of being an honor student. We later discovered that no one but Chris wanted to report on Thailand. Ironically, we all agree because everyone else did. At that point, we all became a
Proactive management of the decision-making process can minimize the threat of groupthink compromising the quality of decisions. Managers can place importance of having a wide variety of options and idea brought to the table. Encouraging employees to thoroughly analyze all aspects of the options, from the moral and ethical implications, to the response they can expect from their opposition. With each decision appoint one or more group member to play devil’s advocate to the suggested options, ask that person to analyze and make a case against each of the suggestions (Sims & Sauser, 2013). Rotate this position throughout the group so that one person is not refuting the groups ideas consistently. Continually encouraging and rewarding contrasting views can hedge the complacency groups fall into after working together for periods of time. Management should be active listeners in the decision-making process being careful to not assert their preference towards a certain option to avoid the group conforming to the preferences of their superiors before the options are fully analyzed (Rose, 2011). Finally, after a decision has been made and the analysis has been completed before implementing or going public with the idea reconvene and go through the choose plan of action one last time to ensure that new information has not become available and
Instead of making decisions independently, now people always rely on others, such as groups or computers, to help them make a decision. Small groups often gives people different points of view and let people understand their situation much more clearly. However, these opinions from others may not be suitable for everyone. James Surowiecki uses the story of the Columbia Disaster to discuss efficiency of small groups. In his essay “Committees, Juries, and Teams: The Columbia Disaster and How Small Groups Can Be Made to Work”, Surowiecki tells us how the small groups can work properly instead of making people “dumber”. Even though, the small group contains people with great
... the majority may decide on may not always be the best thing for the country as a whole.
In the workplace, the team leader's job is to make decisions that benefit the team and the whole company. This places them with a lot of responsibility. They must contemplate the options and consciously select the decision-making strategy most appropriate for the circumstances in which the decision will be made and implemented. Often the decision-making style chosen is among the most significant roles of the project manager. Communication and interpersonal skills of the group members influence the decision. The incorrect approach can cause problems within the group. "Research conducted by Wheelen, Murphy, Tsumura and Kline (1998) demonstrates a clear correlation between positive group dynamics and team productivity". There are many decision-making strategies available. Three of the most common styles are when decisions are made by the group leader alone, decisions by the leader after group discussion, and consensus by the whole group.
In addition, difficulties including decision biases (confirmation traps and hindsight traps) and escalation of commitment can be countered in a constructive manner. J&J provides an environment that supports information search and open discussion among members of the group. By challenging long-held assumptions, a better decision develops from the interaction of group members.
These simple relationships are known as Social Decision Schemes. One social decision scheme is the majority-wins rule, in which the group support whatever position is taken by the majority of its members. Another scheme, the truth-wins rule, predicts that the correct decision will emerge as an increasing number of members realize its appropriateness. The two-third majority rule means that the decision favored by two-thirds or more of the members is supported. Finally, the first-shift rule states that members support a decision represented by the first shift in opinion shown by a
In this particular case, or any other cases that may occur in the future, further research can be accomplished by identifying the boundaries for each argument. Sometimes the issues are so closely related that the solution becomes difficult to distinguish. Other times, evaluating the opinions of others helps to gain a broad consensus of what the majority desires. With this further research, there could be a better understanding of individual’s opposing thoughts, which could help establish a common ground and a solution to different cases.
...and show an open mind to everyone’s ideas. I’ve found that this makes for a lighter and more fun environment and we’ve shown success in completing our task. Most times I’m put into groups, I don’t know the other people very well. This is common at school with my classmates. I’m used to having no leader in the group and everyone fighting to have their ideas chosen. Once a leader was chosen in the group we started discussing openly everyone’s ideas with the chosen leader voicing their opinion on which idea to choose and why. Usually when it comes to my friends I take the leadership role and make an try to hear everyone’s opinion before making a decision. I believe that for a team to find success and reach their goal someone needs to take leadership and voice an unbiased opinion. The team needs to hear everyone’s ideas and choose one based on which will lead to success.
Diversity is vital as it brings a variety of possible solutions for a project or task. Thus recognizing the consequences of groupthink which are the prevention of critical think and no considerations for alternatives. A few ways to fight off groupthink is to ask individuals to write down independent thoughts before the collaboration with the group. There is also having the leader of the group to express their own towards the end so that they do not sway other from making there point. Also to discuss and manage ideas based on the facts versus the use of opinions and perceptions (Marcy, 2013). The adding of the roles of devil advocate within the group to have an opposing idea in the group discussion. The Romans were correct in stating that we are only human and that means big decisions need to be discussed and not questioned before something happens. Reminding that no matter a person place in society death is
There are eight symptoms of groupthink. The first symptom is when all or most of the group view themselves as invincible which causes them to make decisions that may be risky. The group has an enormous amount of confidence and authority in their decisions as well as in themselves. They see themselves collectively better in all ways than any other group and they believe the event will go well not because of what it is, but because they are involved. The second symptom is the belief of the group that they are moral and upstanding, which leads the group to ignore the ethical or moral consequences of the decisions. The group engages in a total overestimation of its morality. There is never any question that the group is not doing the right thing, they just act. The disregarding of information or warnings that may lead to changes in past policy is the third symptom. Even if there is considerable evidence against their standpoint, they see no problems with their plan. Stereotyping of enemy leaders or others as weak or stupid is the fourth symptom. This symptom leads to close-mindedness to other individuals and their opinions. The fifth symptom is the self-censorship of an individual causing him to overlook his doubts. A group member basically keeps his mouth shut so the group can continue in harmony. Symptom number six refers to the illusion of unanimity; going along with the majority, and the assumption that silence signifies consent. Sometimes a group member who questions the rightness of the goals is pressured by others into concurring or agreeing, this is symptom number seven. The last symptom is the members that set themselves up as a buffer to protect the group from adverse information that may destroy their shared contentment regarding the group’s ...
Indeed some research found that the team diversity have positive impact to decision making. For example, one of the research found that the diversity at educational level can positively influence the decision making and also affected on team performance (Simons). In addition, Dooley and Frywell illustrated that the discussion and argument was associated with quality decision making in U.S. hospital. However, some researches also demonstrated that the diversity in the team can have negative influence on decision making. For example, Sounder () found that, in diversity teams, because of the lots of difference between team members, sometimes its difficult to reach an agreement. Although, sometimes diversity in the team can improve the quality of decision making, it also increase the conflict within the team members, and impede the cooperation
As the old saying goes, "An ounce of prevention is worth more than a pound of cure." The dynamics of a team can be very diverse. Sometimes that's good and sometimes it's bad. It is so important to extinguish all issues from the very beginning because otherwise they lie buried and slowly build into something that is blown out of proportion. It is important to safeguard the team from this by setting up a system of routine meetings, and team rules to where people have a chance to discuss and solve potential problems in an open unbiased forum.
...ith valid consideration. Deliberation can only work when deliberators embrace views contrary to their own and learn how to work with people holding contrary views.
Groupthink is the communications theory that addresses, “ defective decision making on the part of a cohesive decision-making group in which loyalty to real or perceived group norms take precedence over independent, critical judgment” (Redd & Mintz, 2013). The main idea behind the theory of groupthink is that when participants in a group discussion do not want to disrupt the group, they will in turn reframe from suggesting other solutions to a problem. By not contributing other suggestions, better solutions may be overlooked and this leads to poor decision making in general. In order for the best possible solution to be found, participants in the group need to feel like they can ask questions and discuss their own personal opinions and beliefs.
In USA the decisions are made by individuals who may or not consult with others in the group or organization. Establishing consensus is not required before making a decision and it does not take too long to make a decision. Americans gene...