Page 127 - Fundamentals of Management Myths Debunked (2017)_Flat

126 Part 2 • Planning
making decisions. Why? In many cases, these groups represent the people who will be most
affected by the decisions being made. Because of their expertise, these people are often best
qualified to make decisions that affect them.
Studies tell us that managers spend a significant portion of their time in meetings.
Undoubtedly, a large portion of that time is involved with defining problems, arriving at solu-
tions to those problems, and determining the means for implementing the solutions. It’s pos-
sible, in fact, for groups to be assigned any of the eight steps in the decision-making process.

What Are the Advantages and Disadvantages of group
Decision Making?
Decisions can be made by individuals or by groups—each approach has its own set of
strengths and neither is ideal for all situations.

Advantages of Group Decisions Disadvantages of Group Decisions
• More complete information. 27 • Time-consuming—assembling the group,
• Diversity of experiences and perspectives getting decisions made.
brought to the decision process. 28 • Minority domination can unduly influence
• More alternatives generated due to great- final decision because group members are
er quantity and diversity of information, never perfectly equal—they differ in rank,
especially when group members represent experience, knowledge about the problem,
different specialties. influence on other members, verbal skills,
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assertiveness, etc.
• Increased acceptance of a solution • Ambiguous responsibility. Group mem-
by having people who will be affect- bers share responsibility, BUT who is
ed by a certain solution and who will actually responsible for final outcome?
31
help implement it participate in the Individual decision—it’s clear. Group de-
decision. 29 cision—it’s not.
• Increased legitimacy because the group • Pressures to conform. Have you ever been in
decision-making process is consistent a group where your views didn’t match the
with democratic ideals, and decisions group’s consensus views and you remained
made by groups may be perceived as more silent? Maybe others felt the same way and
legitimate than those made by a single also remained silent. This is what Irving Ja-
person, which can appear autocratic and nis called groupthink, a form of conformity
arbitrary. in which group members withhold deviant,
minority, or unpopular views in order to
give the appearance of agreement. 32

The Tragedy of Groupthink
What It Does

Hinders decision making, possibly jeopardizing the quality of the decision by:
• Undermining critical thinking in the group.
• Affecting a group’s ability to objectively appraise alternatives.
• Deterring individuals from critically appraising unusual, minority, or unpopular
views.

How Does It Occur? Here are some things to watch out for:
• Group members rationalize resistance to assumptions.
• Members directly pressure those who express doubts or question the majority’s
groupthink views and arguments.
When a group exerts extensive pressure on an • Members who have doubts or differing points of view avoid deviating from what
individual to withhold his or her different views in appears to be group consensus.
order to appear to be in agreement
• An illusion of unanimity prevails. Full agreement is assumed if no one speaks up.