Effective Leadership Style on Groupthink Essay example

The purpose of this article was to evaluate the impact that directive leaders, participative leaders, and devil’s advocates can have on group decision making – particularly the overall quality of the final decision, the process of the group decision making, and five groupthink symptoms for decision making groups. Experimenters directly manipulated the style of leadership being applied as well as devil’s advocacy in comparison to previous studies which also separately observed these same aspects of group decision making. This experiment also included measurements of the objective and subjective outcomes of group decision making by including the quality of the decision, the amount of disagreements before a group decision was reached, and any

Autocratic leadership, also known as authoritarian leadership is a leadership style characterized by individual control over all decisions and little input from group members. Autocratic leaders typically make choices based on their own ideas and judgments and rarely accept advice from followers. Autocratic leadership involves absolute, authoritarian control over a group. It can also be derived

Randy Hirokawa and Dennis Gouran developed the Functional Perspective on Group Decision Making theory to “offer practical advice on how participants can act to ensure better group decisions” (Hirokawa, 1999, p. 170). They believe that as long as the members in a group care about the issue and are reasonably intelligent, the group interaction will have a positive effect on the final decision. In order for a group to reach a high-quality solution, Hirokawa and Gouran believe the group 's decision-making process needs to fulfill four task requirements they refer to as requisite functions of effective decision making. "Three core assumptions define the functional perspective: (1) groups are goal oriented; (2) group performance varies in quality and quantity, and can be evaluated; and (3) internal and external factors influence group performance via the interaction process.” (Wittenbaum, 2004 p. 19).

Authoritarian leadership style is where a leader has complete control and power over their team. They demonstrate their 'power' and 'control' by dictating policies and procedures, deciding what goals need to be achieved, and directs all activities to be done by the team. An authoritarian is usually most successful when things are going well or when in a crisis and decisions need to be made quickly.

Authoritarian leaders are the leaders who like to do all the group decisions on their own and tell other group members what to do and how to do it. This type of leadership is very beneficial when you are in need of a quick decision or faced with some type of crisis. This type of decision making can easily be abused and can often be viewed as being bossy and over controlling. Leaders who use this style may provoke dependence, criticism, dissatisfaction, and aggression from their group members (Forsyth, 1990). According to Gladding 2012, authoritarian leaders do not ask for consideration or suggestions from group members; instead, they structure and direct their groups according to their own wishes, purposes, and the information available to them. A task group could benefit more from an Authoritarian leader. Tasks groups focus on accomplishing specific goals. According to Gladding 1994, “with task groups, an

Furthermore, there are different theories which give insights about why some leaders lead the way they do. One of these theories is the behavioral theory, it emphasized on what leaders do and their leadership styles. The behavioral theory explains three different types of leadership styles namely: autocratic, democratic, and laissez-faire. An autocratic leader makes plans, gives direction on how to execute them, and makes decisions for the group. These type of leaders are highly power control. They give little or no freedom to the members. Whatever they say is final. On the other hand, democratic leaders allow members to participate in the decision making. They seek opinions of the members. On the other hand, laissez-faire leaders allow members to do whatever they like. This type of leaders does very little planning or decision making thus fail to encourage others to do it (Weiss and Tappen, 2015 p.

Leadership theories in and of themselves carry negative and positives characteristics. Within the various theories lie strengths and weaknesses that when applied to complex problems can highlight each one respectively. As I examine a few theories, I will look at the strengths and weaknesses of each and determine when and with which situation would these theories best be utilized. Collective leadership or distributive leadership, and leader-member exchange are both theories that incorporate specific team or group mentalities.

Diversity is important to mitigate two threats to group effectiveness. First, the Asch Effect, distortion of individual judgement by a unanimous but incorrect opposition. (p. 290). Second, Group think, when in a cohesive in-group, members strive for unanimity and override their motivation to realistically appraise alternative courses of action. (p. 292).

A psychologist, Kurt Lewin completed a research study in 1939 on the different types of leadership styles. He considered there to be three types of leaders, democratic, autocratic, and laissez-faire. In this particular study, children were placed in each individual group and viewed on the distinctive styles as they completed arts and crafts. A democratic leader is one that views participation from the group as the main attribute to making decisions. This leadership is viewed as being the most effective way to be a leader and just so happened to be my results from the short quiz that was taken. “Participative leaders encourage group members to participate but retain the final say in the decision-making process” (Cherry, 2016, Participative Leadership (Democratic)). Allowing the group members to feel included initiates room for creativity and motivation from not only the leader but also the group as

2. Background. The Authoritarian Leadership Theory can be defined simply as the establishment of strict, close control over followers by keeping close regulation of policy’s and procedures given to followers (Howell, 4). Authoritarian leaders set clear expectations as to what should be accomplished and how it will be accomplished. As such, the authoritarian leader fills the void as both the leader and the commander, which makes for a clear divide between the leader and follower. If executed poorly, this kind of leadership tends to lead to negative attributions towards subordinates and makes it ineffective and disruptive to the designated group (Hughes, 158).

Group think is an aspect that takes place when a team makes flawed decisions due to the existing pressures that result in decline of moral judgment and evaluation of reality. Cohesiveness is regarded as the most significant antecedent of groupthink since it provides false feedback to the group members regarding the compatibility of personalities and attitudes. The main way with which cohesiveness leads to group think is that it results in less self-censorship as individuals don't deviate from the obvious group consensus. As a result of cohesiveness, group members are less motivated to actually consider the alternative courses of action resulting in group pressures that contribute to carelessness, irrational thinking and poor decisions ("What is Groupthink?" n.d.).

An important part of our learning and growing experience must stem from our ability to analyze and reflect upon the groups that we have been members in. This reflection can define our understanding of the weaknesses both in ourselves and in the others within our group; and it can help to shape the way that we act in future groups. Adjusting ourselves to compensate for our weaknesses, based upon an honest and thorough examination of our actions within a group setting, is one of most important thing for any person to do. It is only through this evaluation that we can improve ourselves and our interactions with others. This paper will examine a group that was required to make an important decision about adding a new member

A further aspect of leadership, which can also be believed to have a direct link with communication, is decision-making. Both leadership styles are similar in the way that ideas need to be stored before making a business decision. In an autocratic work place “decisions are made independently with little or no input from the rest of the group” (Riley, 2012 n.p.). However, in a democratic society “employees have greater involvement in decision making” (Riley, 2012 n.p.). Both these types of leadership have their benefits and disadvantages with respect to decision-making. In his research on different types of leadership, Joseph, (n.d.) stated that autocratic leadership style could be effective in a business environment as decisions can be made quickly without consulting with workers. According to Cherry, (n.d.) this type of leadership would be advantageous in situations such as the military where decisions need to be taken quickly. Though quick decision-making can be beneficial, it could be argued that it can lead to a demotivated workforce. Employees’ motivation decreases

While reading this week’s material, I was familiar with a lot of the concepts due to experience, not academia. It was interesting to read about these topics in an educational manner. One thing I learned about was groupthink. Groupthink is a phenomenon that can occur when groups make decisions that individual members know are poor ones. Groupthink is more likely to occur when there is high group cohesiveness, a strong leader, pressure for conformity, and isolation of the group from outside influences. There is good news though: groupthink can be avoided when group leaders are conscious of it. By group leaders encouraging critical evaluation of all alternatives by every group member and serving as impartial moderators instead of attempting to

Groupthink is a theory of social interaction involved with methods of group decision-making, originally developed by Irving Janis, a social psychologist, in 1972 (Communication Theory). Groupthink was initially described by Janis as the thought processes of people engaged in group decision-making with a deep desire to conform to ‘in-group members’ーrequiring extreme loyalty to group values and the exclusion of those deemed part of an ‘out-group’. In situations when groupthink occurs, the need for members of the group discussion to conform their ideas to those of the group overpowers the individual’s need to evaluate group choices critically, whether or not one fully agrees or supports an alternative answer (Psychology Today). There inlies danger