The Handbook of Board Governance, 3rd Edition

64Understanding Groupthink to Manage Teamwork Effectively Within Boards of Directors

Sylvie St-Onge, BAA, MSc, PhD, ASC, CRHA Distinction Fellow

Fellow researcher at CIRANO, and Professor, Department of Management, HEC Montréal, Québec, Canada

Executive Summary

Team spirit is deemed to be a prerequisite for the best boards of directors. Fostering cohesion within boards is essential for these governing bodies that are different from workplace teams. However, team spirit must not become an end in itself, hence drifting toward groupthink and working at the expense of board effectiveness and organizational performance.

This chapter presents a theoretical model aimed at understanding the phenomenon of groupthink within boards. First, it presents the indicators of groupthink within boards: pressure toward uniformity, narrow-mindedness, and overestimation of skills and power. Second, it details the factors that favor groupthink bias within boards: relational and decision-making dynamics, contextual factors, and the composition of boards. Next, it deals with the potential negative impacts of groupthink within boards of directors on individuals, organizations, and society. Finally, it proposes a set of conditions to prevent and counter the development of groupthink bias within boards.

Introduction

Over the past two decades, organizations across various sectors and countries have scaled up their governance mechanisms. However, despite these improvements, boards of directors are frequently ...