Have you ever thought about speaking up in a meeting or some other type of group setting and decided against it because you did not want to appear unsupportive or disapprove of the group's efforts? Have you led a team in which the team members were reluctant to express their own opinions? If so, you have probably been a victim of "Groupthink".
The term "Groupthink" was coined by Irving Janis in 1972 when he was researching why a team reaches an excellent decision one time, and a disastrous one the next. What he found was that a lack of conflict or opposing viewpoints led to poor decisions, because alternatives were not fully analyzed, and therefore groups did not gather enough information to make an informed decision.
" Ehh, where should we have lunch later? The cafeteria or Megabites? ".
" Err...Megabites lah! The cafeteria's too smelly!".
"Yeahh!(all chorus) The cafeteria stinks man!". [ pun not intended (: ]
This is just an example of groupthink(at a low level) that my friends and I tend to engage in, when deciding where we want to have lunch in school. I am sure most of us if not all have experienced this! (:
We have the tendency to hold shared stereotypes (that the cafeteria's ventilation is horrible and that we do not want to reek of oil and food smells.) However, we sometimes fail to remember that not everyone in our group like the food served in Megabites, or, find it too pricey because we stick to our own perceptions and prejudice's and simple refuse to change.
This is when self-censorship - individuals within the group who hesitate to speak up as they know they will encounter disapproval. This then leads to illusion of unanimity whereby the doubting member believes that everyone agrees with the group's chosen action/ideology(in this case that the cafeteria reeks) and thus, should a dissenting member speak up, he/ she will be severely sanctioned as other members place pressure/put dissenters down.
Therefore, in this case a mind-guard / devil's advocate(someone to look at things from a different perspective) will be extremely helpful event and "protect" leader and key members from negative information.
In addition, according to Fisher, groups that never experience conflict are not working at capacity. A healthy group is noisy, inhibited and not governed by norms of politeness and have frequent disagreements , arguments and constant interruptions.
Hence, i feel that my group should thus come together to take advantage and hopefully acquire idiosyncrasy credit- a kind of symbolic currency earned through behavior. As, only from such interaction and "thrashing" of opinions, can efficient task dimension(groups which are formed to reach a decision) occur, instead of us always wasting precious time trying to decide where to eat.
What do you think? (:
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
1 comment:
hellooo charis(:
interesting title there btw! Hmmm yeah there will, inevitably, be at least a few symptoms of groupthink present in a group, whether in a formal working committee or an informal group of friends. At times, we don't even feel it as we get used to it.
However, I feel that regardless of the situation, we should take note of our own behaviour when we are in a group and play a positive role. Also, we would find that there would be certain things tt we would not be too happy about and when that happens, we ought to talk it out and address the problem before it worsens.
Most importantly, in a group, everyone should feel that they belong and not left out, in order for groupthink to be kept to a minimum.
ps. so next time if you want to eat at the cafeteria just let us know, charis! :D
-debbie
Post a Comment