Saturday, February 13, 2010
Week 3 Question 3-Groupthink Concept
From this week’s reading one concept that I found interesting was groupthink. It is a concept that was identified by Janis. It is defined “as a strong concurrence seeking tendency among the group members within a group that leads to a deterioration in the decision making process” (Harris 56). It basically refers to flawed decision-making in a group. To the most part, groups experiencing groupthink do not consider all alternatives and they desire unanimity or solving immediate problems at the expense of quality decisions. Groupthink typically occurs when groups are highly organized and when they are under considerable pressure to make a quality decision. Some groupthink symptoms that are discussed in the text are: Illusion invulnerability, collective rationalizing, unquestioned morality, emergence of mind guards…etc. Some negative outcomes also include limited original solution never reevaluated (Not examining early options), not consulting with all members, not seeking expert or outside opinion, being selective in using outside opinions.
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Nathan,
ReplyDeleteI also found myself considering to choose this as my concept of choice for this week. I think knowing about the concept groupthink was important because many people do not understand the process. I think that may groups faces challenges and either ignore the challenges or find odd ways about trying to solve the challenge. They do not think of all the alternatives that are possible. I found it interesting to know that there is a process to which you should look at to follow. Also, interesting there were symptoms as your specified. Who would of thought that there are symptoms that should occur to this process? I know I did not think there were any. Understanding this process I feel is critical even though you may not always have a positive outcome you have at least thought of all the possibilities.