Groupthink Essay

2610 Words11 Pages
Janis’s (1972) theory of ‘groupthink’ has been an influential concept for many years, explicating bad group decisions and offering strategies to manage and avoid undesirable in-group decisions. To understand the interplay of groupthink processes it is firstly important to gain insight into Janis’s theoretical causal model of group decision making. There are five essential characteristics within this model that highlight the presence of groupthink. They serve as indicators of inevitable communicative errors within a group. Characteristics such as the antecedents of groupthink will be evaluated, including provocative situational contexts and cohesiveness (Janis, 1972, 1982, 1989). Group decision making and the effects of groupthink along with its advantages and disadvantages will also be discussed. Communication is of the high importance for groups in making decisions as is the social influence within a group. Emphasis will be placed on how the new President of the USA ‘Barack Obama’ can be made aware of groupthink. Preventative techniques and evidence of groupthink will be suggested as a means to help the President avoid groupthink from occurring too often in his administration. There are several key explanations for faulty decision making within any given group. Such explanations have retained a prominent place in the study of group processes, particularly when faulty decisions result in undesirable or unimaginable outcomes (Henningsen, Henningsen, Eden & Cruz, 2006). The five step model of groupthink was first conceptualised by Janis (1972). According to Janis each component of the model needs to occur in order for groupthink to take place. To return to the introduction one such component of the model are the antecedents of groupthink. The remaining four are concurrence seeking of group members, symptoms of groupthink, decision-making defects, and poor decision
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