Learning Journal: Groupthink - Assignment Example

This wide applicability makes the topic and the behavioral analysis that supports the theory important for me to learn. I do not have prior work experience but am exposed to the concept during the management course lectures and my personal research work on the subject. As mentioned before, the groupthink concept, if applied with understanding, can help one to become a better team manager or a more productive participant. A good team manager encourages free and frank expression of views and seeks suggestions from all team members.

This would help the participants not to fall into the trap of going by the easy way and saying what the boss wishes to hear, even though they may have reservations about it. This two-way process of identifying issues and discussing several options as solutions should result in making the right decisions more often than not. Real world examples To elaborate on real work situations to further demonstrate the groupthink concept, I wish to discuss two subsets of groupthink - impression management and Abilene paradox, from the case studies that I came across.

Impression management relies on the ability of a person to impress a group with oral presentation, duly backed by statistical or other quotes. There is a positive aspect and a negative aspect to impression management. The person needs to put in hard work to gather convincing evidence and practice well to make an impressive presentation. On the negative side, if subjectivity overtakes objectivity, reliability of evidence becomes suspect. In real world, one often comes across such situations during job interviews (Greene and Burleson, 2008).

Candidates seeking a placement try their best to impress. The researcher of this essat focuses on one of the aspects of management studies, named Groupthink. It is stated in the essay that this concept deals with behavior of individuals while working/interacting in group situations. External factors like hierarchical obligations, power equations or avoiding conflicts make people agree or propose a course of action in which they are not individually convinced. Learning about this behavioral tendency helps in avoiding such pitfalls.

Groupthink is a collective term in management jargon coined by Irving Janis and embraces a variety of individual behavior characteristics and actions in a given setting viz., a group. Some of these varieties have been identified as recency bias, impression management and information formatting. Abilene paradox, that was also discussed in the essay is close to groupthink in concept. It deals with how an individual’s behavior is influenced by the presence of others. To elaborate on real work situations to further demonstrate the groupthink concept, the researcher wishes to discuss two subsets of groupthink - impression management and Abilene paradox, from the case studies that the researcher came across.

It is summed up, that managers have the responsibility to express free and frank opinion on issues that come up in discharge of their duties. Behavioral tendencies may make one to give undue importance to extraneous factors such as hierarchy, power or conflict avoidance and agree for a successful course of action.