Topic #2 – Groupthink

Irving Janis coined the phrase, groupthink in the 1970’s. This concept has become part of management lexicon as something to be avoided. I have provided symptoms of Groupthink according to Janis at the bottom of the page. I also have provided several short video clips about groupthink that you may watch. Watch these videos and then answer the questions below.

Examples of groupthink in History www.youtube.com/watch

Jonestown – an example of groupthink www.youtube.com/watch

How Groupthink Affects Organizations – Patricia Werhane www.youtube.com/watch

How to Counteract Groupthink – Patricia Werhane www.youtube.com/watch

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Have you seen this is your work environment? Have you seen it elsewhere? And when you start to see groupthink in others, be careful that you aren’t demonstrating the symptoms yourself. Discuss groupthink, your experience with it or your observations!

Topic #2 – Groupthink

Student’s reply:

These are great examples of group think. The Nazi party and Jonestown are 2 very clear examples of it. I have encountered group think at a heightened level at work a few times. A few years ago at my former employer we had a meeting on a Friday afternoon. Management rolled out the plan to switch everyone to 4 days work weeks instead of 5. What it really meant was everyone was losing 10 hours of overtime per week. I guess management thought this was going to go well but one of the drivers lost his temper. He began yelling and cussing at management. With him getting riled up a few of the other driver got riled up and began to give it to management also. We ended up having two drivers walk out of that meeting and quit. Because of a revolving door of drivers we never were able to get the 4 day week going. Looking back at it management did a horrible job of rolling it out. It should have been a meeting where they showed the financial’s and how cutting overtime would save us x amount of money. Instead it was a head to head head battle which management ultimately lost. Has anyone else had this happen at work?

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