The Primary Conditions That Foster the Development of Groupthink - Essay Example

number Publish Organisational Behaviour Discuss the primary conditions that foster the development of groupthink. Outline and explain four symptoms of a group that is experiencing groupthink. The primary conditions that foster groupthink are cohesiveness, the overwhelming endorsement of the leader’s ideas and isolation of the entire group from any expert opinion. Any group undergoing groupthink tends to display a delusion of immunity where group members are too optimistic. This forces such groups to undertake large risks that may result in failures such as the Challenger disaster in 1986. Also, such groups tend to forego warnings collectively since they hold that their group is unquestionably right in its decisions without any real need for an analysis of consequences. Other groups are seen as being controlled by leaders that are enemies of the groupthink group. This promotes a hostile environment since negotiations and other amicable means of settlement are off the table leading to wasted time at defeating the other group. Members who tend to question the stereotypical group environment are pressurised since this is seen as a sign of betrayal from the group’s cohesive environment. 2. Describe, discuss, and give examples of the various stages of group development. Groups develop using four stages that are (1) common recognition (2) communication and taking decisions (3) impetus and output and (4) management and organisation. In the first stage, the group members interact with each other on various issues in order to gauge each other opinions in order to build a common image. In the next stage, group members collectively communicate together in order to make decisions to benefit the group overall. Thirdly, groups are motivated enough to become productive as a whole since group members know their roles and responsibilities and how to deliver in the existing environment. Lastly, groups begin to assign roles and responsibilities on criteria of achieving results and perform corrective measures to enhance productivity. 3. Which types of teams discussed in Chapter 10 could successfully operate as virtual teams? Provide support for your answer. Quality circles, problem solving teams and product development teams could successfully operate as virtual teams. Quality circles need to meet at intervals in order to monitor performance using statistics derived from the physical workplaces. On the other hand, problem solving teams need to come together only when problems arise. Given that the problem may require interaction from various areas, a problem solving team may require by design to be a virtual team. Product development teams are formed at differing horizontal and vertical levels and require constant interaction from various locations such as the manufacturing floor, the corporate head office etc. so using virtual teams is preferable. 4. Discuss and give examples of the opportunities and challenges of communicating across international cultures. Communication across international culture opens up new possibilities for trade, commerce and business as well as providing new learning areas. A business can avail a number of new different opportunities through cross cultural communication to enhance organisational aims and objectives. However, communication between cultures is also problematic since various cultures have different expectations and structures. This presents a large number of problems that must be scaled in order to allow cross cultural communication. Language is the primary barrier followed by expectations on how a business is organised. For example, a Japanese salesman may require input from superiors before making decisions while an American salesman may initiate a sale himself. 5. Describe, discuss, and give examples of the ways that the source and the receiver can improve the communication process. The first and foremost issue of importance is language. The sending and the receiving ends should mutually agree to a language that could be used for communication. Currently, English is a language used extensively for cross cultural communication even if the sender and the receiver have different languages altogether. In addition, different cultures have different expectations and modes of communication. For example, the Indian culture is more gesture based than the American culture in terms of language and hence there would be a need to communicate recognising such differences. Similarly, there may be other communication based peculiarities such as different interpretations attached to similar syntax constructions that may need to be accommodated for. Moreover, it also helps to employ professional help at the source and the receiver’s end to smoothen out communication kinks. 6. Describe the five bases of power identified in the framework developed by French and Raven. Give an example of each. The five bases of power identified by French and Raven include legitimate power, reward power, coercive power, expert power and referent power. Legitimate power derives from a position of authority in a vertically organised management system e.g. a boss’ power over his subordinates derives from legitimate power. In contrast, reward power derives itself from the ability to provide subordinates with rewards for their work. For example, in any organisation, the boss has the power to reward the employee by providing a good review that provides the employee with a pay raise. On the other hand, coercive power is derived from the ability to harm the other person mentally or physically in order to make them work. Bonded labour is motivated by coercive power. Alternatively, expert power derives from a person’s ability to handle issues as an expert when other people are not that capable enough. For example, a machine shop technician with vast experience who is consulted for various problems tends to have expert power. Lastly, referent power derives from a person’s character such that the receiving person tends to emulate the chosen role model. For example, a strong superior would be emulated by subordinates as he would be seen as a role model. 7. Several techniques are used in the practice of political behaviour. Compare and contrast three of these techniques. Political behaviour may be carried out by controlling information, using outside experts and controlling the agenda. Information can be controlled by a person in a group such that information only gets disseminated when that person wants it and for whatever purposes that person wants it. The access to information can serve as a critical technique to political behaviour and would allow the controlling individual to manipulate people’s behaviour through his supply of information. On the other hand, a person may call on outside experts in order to bolster their own point of view in order to further it. Using outside expert opinion only adds more weight to the politically behaving individual’s stance and this allows a greater chance for such aims to be furthered. Political behaviour may also be carried out by controlling the agenda so that the controlling individual’s desired outcomes are projected for augmentation. For example, a power manager may pursue his objectives by controlling the agenda at a board meeting. 8. Describe a situation in which managers would need to resolve conflict in their organizations. Outline some structural techniques managers can use to do this. Managers would need to resolve conflict in their organisations in case that two managers’ teams were at loggerheads with each other. This would produce problems in such teams working together to meet any objectives. The managers could sit these teams together in order to clarify whatever confusions exist. Alternatively, the managers could bring in the team leaders together and carry out negotiations between them in a controlled environment to resolve the conflict. On the other hand, the managers could sit together with the teams individually and discover what the causes of conflict are so that they can be resolved through manager meetings. 9. What steps should an entrepreneur take to create an organizational culture? An entrepreneur should create a strong sense of commitment by providing employees with a strongly receptive and vibrant working environment. The employees of the organisation should be allowed to connect to the organisation’s aims and objectives by promoting an organisational culture that takes care of the employee. In turn, the employees of the organisation would begin to see the organisation as a close connection and would contribute to the best of their abilities. Once an organisational culture begins to develop, there is a dire need to strictly monitor and manage it so that certain groups in such a culture do not overrun other groups since this would cause dissent. 10. Choose an individual source of resistance to change that is, in your opinion, the most troublesome. Explain your choice and describe how you would deal with it. An individual source of resistance to change for me is my cultural background that strongly advocates persistence with a given set of values. Other aspects of personal resistance to change are far more temporal when compared to my strongly implanted cultural ideas. I am dealing with removing this resistance to personal change by interacting with an increasing number of people so that I can fathom how they view situations and deal with change. Constant change would allow me to deal better with change since it would expose me to various new situations that I am not comfortable with. In learning to deal with such situations, I expect to become better at managing change in myself. 11. Describe, discuss, and give examples of the four basic forces for organization change. Organisations tend to change on account of globalisation, technological change, knowledge management and cross border collaboration. Globalisation exposes an organisation to various new competitors and survival requires that the organisation change rapidly. In contrast, technological changes are fairly rapid currently and require organisations to change in order to deal with new technological progress. Knowledge management provides the modern organisation with a clearer picture of the segment they are dealing with. Since new perspectives keep on appearing, the organisation needs to change to deal with emerging perspectives. Cross border collaboration requires the organisation to change so that cross cultural barriers can be overtaken successfully. Read More