Making the Team: A Guide for Managers

Decision-Making Pitfall 1: Groupthink

Groupthink occurs when team members place consensus above all other priorities—including using good judgment when the consensus reflects poor judgment, improper or immoral actions, and so on. Groupthink, at its core, involves a deterioration of mental efficiency, reality testing, and moral judgments as a result of group pressures toward conformity of opinion. For a list of groupthink decisions in the political and corporate world, see Box 6-1. The desire to agree can become so dominant that it can override the realistic appraisal of alternative courses of action (Janis, 1972, 1982). The reasons for groupthink may range from group pressures to conform to a sincere desire to incorporate and reflect the views ...