Page 331 - Fundamentals of Management Myths Debunked (2017)_Flat

330 Part 4 • Leading
◂ ◂ ◂ From the Past to the Present ▸ ▸ ▸

• DOES the desire to be accepted as a part of a group leave • The group was seated in a prearranged way so the USS
one susceptible to conforming to the group’s norms? was the last to announce his or her decision and so was
• WILL a group exert pressure that’s strong enough to unaware that the experiment was fixed.
change a member’s attitude and behavior? • The experiment began with two sets of matching exer-
That’s what Solomon Asch wanted to know, and according to cises in which all the subjects gave the right answers.
his research, the answer appears to be yes. 10 • On the third set, however, the first subject gave an
obviously wrong answer—for example, saying C in
Asch’s Research: Exhibit 10–4. The next subject gave the same wrong
• Study involved groups of seven or eight people who sat answer, and so did the others, until it was the unsuspect-
in a classroom and were asked to compare two cards ing subject’s turn.
held by an investigator. The object was for each group • The USS knew that “B” was the same as “X” but every-
member to announce aloud which of the three lines one else said “C” .
matched the single line.
• The decision confronting the USS
• One card had one line; the other was this: Do you publicly state a
had three lines of varying length. Have YOU ever been perception that differs from the pre-
One of the lines on the three-line announced position of the others?
card was identical to the line on pressured by a Or do you give an answer that you
the one-line card and the differ- strongly believe to be incorrect in
ence in line length was quite obvi- group to conform? order to have your response agree
ous. (See Exhibit 10–4.) with the other group members?
• Under ordinary conditions, subjects made errors of less • Asch’s subjects conformed—that is, gave answers they
than 1 percent. knew were wrong but were consistent with the replies
of other group members—in about 35 percent of many
BUT … what happens if members of the group begin to experiments and many trials.
give incorrect answers?
Implications for Managers:
Will the pressure to conform cause an unsuspecting sub- • The Asch study provides considerable insight into group
ject (USS) to alter his or her answers to align with those behaviors. The tendency, as Asch showed, is for individ-
of the others?
ual members to go along with the pack. To diminish the
negative aspects of conformity, managers should create
Exhibit 10–4 Examples of Cards Used in Asch’s Study a climate of openness in which employees are free to
discuss problems without fear of retaliation.
If your professor has assigned this, go to the Assignments
section of mymanagementlab.com to complete these dis-
cussion questions.
Talk About It 3: Does the desire to be accepted as a part
of a group leave one susceptible to conforming to the group’s
X A B C
norms? Will a group exert pressure that’s strong enough to
change a member’s attitude and behavior? Discuss.
Talk About It 4: What can you use from this discussion
to help you be a better manager?