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Group Think Essay

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Group Think

This type of dysfunctional operation of an organization has many ways and opportunities for failure. The basic fundamentals of this process are the beginnings of failure as groups seek conformity and unity they sacrifice everything in order to maintain peace within the group. Many times this will take the individuals creative thoughts and ability to voice the creative edge thinking away. In many organizations this is a process that is continually used. It is perceived that management wants the organizations operation or process to run without any type of question or waves. Below are listed eight of the main symptoms of group think as detailed by Janis, I. L & Manns book “Decision making”
Symptoms of Groupthink are divided …show more content…

Decision making is affected by the Group Think because of the lack of openness that should be displayed and offered by everyone involved. The development of the organization is dependent on the ability of the group to make decisions that are thought through and not made solely on pressures and accepted or narrow minded ways that are not thought out.

More specifically, whenever a group making policy displays most of the symptoms of Groupthink then "we can expect to find that the group also displays symptoms of defective decision-making. Seven such examples are as Janis states:

1. Incomplete survey of alternatives.
2. Incomplete survey of objectives.
3. Failure to examine risks of preferred choice.
4. Failure to reappraise initially rejected alternative.
5. Poor information search.
6. Selective bias in processing information at hand.
7. Failure to work out contingency plans.

One of the worst Groupthink decisions ever was the decision to launch the Space shuttle Challenger. "On the morning of January 28, 1986, the space shuttle Challenger blasted off from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida

Seventy-three seconds after the countdown clock reached zero the Challenger exploded. Immediately after the explosion President Reagan appointed a commission to find out why the Challenger exploded. "In a five-volume published report, the presidential commission identified the primary cause of

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