Groupthink refers to a situation whereby people in a group make a unanimous decision without giving much thought to rationality or judgment of every individual in the group in an effort to have a consensus. It often occurs when there is time constraint and, therefore, group members are forced to put aside their personal doubts and allow for implementation of the project with one member of the group dominating the decision making process. When groupthink occurs, the group members arrive at a consensus because of social pressure that does not give any room for negotiation or reasoning. It often carries a negative connotation in the sense that individual members do not get room to be creative or weigh out options before having a consensus. Group members often choose to avoid suggesting an alternative solution but rather stick to the overall decision of the group so that they may not appear as troublemakers in the group. In this regard, groupthink is not a good idea because it can blind the group members to the point that they fail to realize the future risks and consequences likely to be caused by their choices.
There is a time I fell into this trap when I was a member of one group. I was once a member of a youth group that collects and contributes money among members and then identify a potential investment venture that has a high return on investment. In this sense, the group was weighing on many options to invest the money with group members giving their suggestions since little time was left. The group unanimously agreed to invest the money in the stock exchange market with the chairman leading the decision-making process. However, the stock market was very unstable at that time due to inflation. I felt like opposing the decision but I coiled back for fear of being considered uncooperative. The group eventually lost the money because of making wrong investment decision. Had the group allowed members to give alternative opinions, it would have made a better decision to invest even in the transport industry that was quite a boom at that time.
Delegate your assignment to our experts and they will do the rest.
