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o Brainstorming has many advantages over other approaches.
▪ In brainstorming sessions, group members are enthusiastic, participation is
broader than normal, and the group maintains a strong task orientation.
▪ Ideas are built upon and extended, and members feel that the final product is a
team solution.
o Brainstorming’s major difficulties include the:
▪ The residual fear among some members that their creative thoughts will be
looked down upon
▪ The fact that independent thought and later criticism of one’s ideas do not
contribute to group cohesion
▪ The failure to set and follow ground rules
▪ An organizational history of not taking action to implement ideas
▪ The very real fact that only one person can speak at a time
o The marriage of computer technology and groupware programs has allowed the
development of a modified version of the method, known as electronic
brainstorming.
▪ In this process, group members sit at personal computer terminals and receive a
question, an issue, or a request for establishing priorities.
▪ In response, they type in their own ideas as they arise.
▪ As multiple inputs are received, a set of the group’s ideas appears on their
screens, available for response, editing, or even input of judgment or votes.
• The Nominal Group Technique
o A nominal group exists in name only, with members having minimal interaction prior
to producing a decision.
o The following are the steps that nominal groups often follow:
▪ Individuals are brought together and given a problem.
▪ They develop solutions independently, often writing them on cards.
▪ Their ideas are shared with others in a structured format.
▪ Brief time is allotted so that questions can be asked—but only for clarification.
▪ Group members individually designate their preferences for the best alternatives
by secret ballot.
▪ The group decision is announced.
o Advantages of the nominal group technique include the:
▪ Opportunity for equal participation by all members
▪ Prevention of dominance of discussion by any one member
▪ Tight control of time that the process allows.
o Disadvantages reported are that group members:
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▪ Are frustrated by the rigidity of the procedure
▪ Gain no feelings of cohesiveness
▪ Do not get their social needs satisfied
▪ Do not have the opportunity to benefit from cross-fertilization of ideas and build
on them
• Delphi Decision Making
o In Delphi decision groups, a panel of relevant people is chosen to address an issue.
▪ A series of questionnaires are sequentially distributed to the respondents, who do
not need to meet face-to-face.
▪ All responses typically are in writing.
▪ Replies are gathered from all participants, summarized, and fed back
(anonymously) to the members for their review.
▪ Afterward, participants are asked to make another decision on the basis of new
information.
▪ The process may be repeated several times until the responses converge
satisfactorily and a final report is prepared.
o Success of the Delphi process depends on adequate time, participant expertise,
communication skill, and the motivation of members to immerse themselves in the
task.
o The major merits of the system include:
▪ Elimination of the detraction from interpersonal problems among panelists
▪ Efficient use of experts’ time
▪ Adequate time for reflection and analysis by respondents
▪ Diversity and quantity of ideas generated
▪ Accuracy of predictions and forecasts made or scenarios generated
o The increasingly wide availability of computers and the electronic transmission of
responses have affected the Delphi process.
▪ Through their use, the interactive process of collecting input and feeding back
group data can be greatly abbreviated.
• Dialectic Decision Methods
o Some face-to-face decision-making groups converge too quickly on one alternative
while overlooking others.
o Their incomplete evaluation of options may reflect either the participants’ dislike of
meetings or their lack of willingness to raise and confront tough issues.
o The dialectic decision method (DDM), which traces its roots to Plato and Aristotle,
offers a way of overcoming these problems.
o The steps of DDM are portrayed in Figure 12.8.
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assumptions that underlie each proposal.
▪ The group then breaks into advocacy subgroups, which examine and argue the
relative merits of their positions.
▪ Then, the entire group makes a decision based on the competing presentations.
▪ This decision may mean embracing one of the alternatives, forging a compromise
from several ideas, or generating a new proposal.
o The merits of DDM include better understanding of the proposals, their underlying
premises, and their pros and cons by the participants.
▪ Members are also likely to feel more confident about the choice they made.
o Disadvantages include the propensity to forge a weak compromise in order to avoid
choosing sides, and the tendency to focus more on who were the better debaters than
what the best decision should be.
• Crowdsourcing
o A contemporary method for obtaining inputs from a wide variety of individuals is
(collaboration-based) crowdsourcing.
▪ This involves outsourcing a large-scale task to a group of self-selected persons
who then work together to produce a single solution.
Potential Outcomes of Formal Group Processes
• Support for Decisions
o Probably the most important by-product of face-to-face group meetings is that people
who participate in making a decision feel more strongly motivated to accept it and
carry it out.
▪ Meetings are one of the best means available of committing people to carry out a
course of action.
▪ If several group members are involved in carrying out a decision, group
discussion helps each understand the part others will play so they can coordinate
their efforts.
o Group decisions carry more weight with those who are not group members.
▪ They feel decisions of this type are more free from individual prejudice because
they are based on a combination of many viewpoints.
▪ Further, the combined social pressure of the group stands behind the decision.
• Quality of Decisions
o Groups often are highly effective problem-solving tools.
▪ In comparison with an individual, groups typically have greater information
available to them, a variety of experiences to draw upon, multiple perspectives
from diverse thinkers, and the capacity to examine suggestions and reject the
incorrect ones.
▪ As a result, groups can frequently produce more and better-quality solutions to
some problems than individuals can.
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• Individual Development
o A group benefits most through widespread and fairly even participation by all
members.
▪ Participation also increases the likelihood of each member’s developing new
interactive skills that can be used later in other groups.
o Three reasons appear to underlie the social facilitation—group members try harder to
contribute on a task just because other people are around—effect:
▪ Having other people around simply increases a person’s general level of arousal
and awareness, stimulating mental activity.
▪ The presence of others makes some people apprehensive about the likelihood of
being appraised, formally or informally, by others, and thus they raise their level
of performance so as to look good.
▪ The presence of others may raise one’s awareness of the discrepancy between the
actual and ideal self and thereby stimulate the person to close that gap.
o Increased participation may also be a product of implied group pressure to perform, or
a natural response to seeing others do so.
o Social facilitation is closely related to the idea of role modeling, where a group member
sees and hears others perform well and wants to duplicate that behavior because of the
social rewards it elicits from them.
▪ These explanations cluster around conformity, in which group members are alert
to the perceived expectations and norms of the majority, and make conscious or
unconscious efforts to adapt to them.
Consensus: A Key Issue in Decision-Making Groups
• Without total agreement, group members may be expected to carry out decisions they did not
support.
o Divided votes also may set up disagreements that extend beyond the meeting.
o On the other hand, a requirement, or even implicit expectation, of unanimity has its
disadvantages.
▪ It may become the paramount goal, causing people to suppress their opposition or
to tell the group they agree when honestly they do not.
▪ In addition, it is frustrating to the majority of members to have to keep discussing
a subject long after their minds are made up, simply because they are hoping to
convince a few honest dissenters.
▪ The situation is a waste of time and an embarrassment to dissenters.
▪ At its worst, the search for unanimous agreement can delay worthwhile projects
unnecessarily.
• Most employers do not expect or require unanimity for committee decisions.
o In practice, consensus is often interpreted to mean that the group engaged in
widespread input gathering, which resulted in a shared level of understanding.
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• Specific ideas for reaching consensus include the following:
o Conduct periodic and nonbinding straw polls to identify clearly where people stand.
o Suggest a supermajority vote.
o Ask members to withdraw controversial proposals, temper their concerns, or stand
aside to allow the group to proceed without them.
o Create a subgroup and empower it to make a decision
o Distill the concerns into major groups to pinpoint patterns of problems.
o Expedite closing of discussion through use of a “go around” or a “fish bowl.”
• Facilitation Skills
o Group meetings don’t always run smoothly by themselves; they require a unique and
broad range of skills.
o Facilitation is the process of helping a group attain resounding success, maximize its
efficient use of time, and feel satisfied with its efforts.
o Effective facilitators encourage a group to:
▪ Separate idea-getting from idea-evaluation
▪ Generate multiple solutions to evaluate
▪ Avoid personal attacks
▪ Attain balanced contributions from its members
▪ Piggyback on others’ ideas
▪ Identify criteria for judging potential solutions
▪ Process its own success or failure
o Processing involves setting aside several minutes at the end of a meeting to examine
what went well, what went poorly, and how the group’s behavior could be improved in
future sessions.
Weaknesses of Committees
• Meetings are an essential and productive part of work organizations, and must be designed
and used effectively.
o Part of the trouble is that people expect too much of them, and when they do not meet
their expectations, people criticize instead of seeking improvements.
• Properly conducted meetings can contribute to organizational progress by:
o Providing participation
o Integrating interests
o Improving decision making
o Committing and motivating members to carry out a course of action
o Encouraging creative thinking
o Broadening perspectives
o Changing attitudes
• The fundamental decision that must be made with groups is not whether to have them, but
how to make the best use of them.
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• To use meetings, one must know their weaknesses, which fall into five major categories—
slowness and expensiveness, groupthink, polarization, escalating commitment, and divided
responsibility.
• Slowness & Expensiveness
o Meetings of all types are sometimes a slow and costly way to get things done.
o One study, for example, found that the typical committees were slowed down by
spending 60 percent of their time with “input providers” and “advice providers,” and
not enough time with critical stakeholders.
o However, on occasion, delay can be desirable.
▪ There is more time for thinking, for objective review of an idea, and for the
suggestion of alternatives.
o But when quick decisive action is necessary, an individual approach is more effective.
• Groupthink
o One of the most convincing criticisms of meetings is that they often lead to conformity
and compromise.
▪ This tendency of a tightly knit group to bring individual thinking in line with the
group’s thinking is called groupthink, or the leveling effect.
o The ideas of dominant members are more likely to be accepted whether or not they
have value.
o Groupthink can be detected by watching for some of its classic symptoms, which
include:
▪ Self-censorship of critical thoughts
▪ Rationalization that what they are doing is acceptable to others
▪ Illusion of invulnerability
▪ Reliance on self-appointed mind-guards
o Groupthink is probably present when a group acts as though it is above the law and
cannot err, and when it assumes it has total support for its actions.
▪ The consequences of groupthink include deterioration in a group’s judgment,
failure to engage in reality testing, and lowered quality of its decision making.
o One effective method of reducing or preventing groupthink is to legitimize the role of a
devil’s advocate for each meeting.
▪ This person—a designated contrarian—is expected to question the ideas of
others, probe for supporting facts, and challenge their logic.
o A broader approach—red teaming—is used by the C.I.A.
▪ Red teaming is a form of alternative analysis, in which a subset of a group
challenges underlying assumptions, takes an adversary’s viewpoint, and proposes
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different scenarios that have not been previously considered.
o Other methods used by organizations to prevent groupthink include:
▪ Rotating in new group members
▪ Inviting attendance by outsiders
▪ Announcing a temporary delay before final decision making to give members one
last chance to identify and voice their reservations
• Polarization
o In polarization, individuals bring to the group, their strong predispositions, either
positive or negative, toward a topic.
▪ Their attitudes become rigid and even more extreme if they are aggressively
confronted.
o Although group members’ attitudes can become polarized in either direction (risky or
conservative), research suggests that some groups tend to make a risky shift in their
thinking.
▪ This tendency means they are more willing to take chances with organizational
resources as a group than they would if they were acting individually.
▪ Sometimes highly self-confident members can express themselves so
persuasively that the rest accept their arguments without much debate.
▪ Other members feel that since they are not individually responsible for the
decision, they can afford to take greater risks.
• Escalating Commitment
o Closely related to the problem of groupthink is the idea that group members may
persevere in advocating a course of action despite rational evidence that it will result
in failure.
▪ They may even allocate additional resources to the project, thereby escalating
commitment despite overwhelming evidence that it will fail.
o Decision makers escalate their commitment for many reasons:
▪ Sometimes they may unconsciously fall prey to selective perception and thus use
a confirmation bias to actively search for and select only information that
supports their arguments.
▪ Their ego needs also affect their decisions, since their desire to protect their self-
esteem prevents them from admitting failure until the evidence is overwhelming.
▪ In many cultures, leaders who are risk takers and persist in the face of adversity
are highly admired.
• Divided Responsibility
o Management literature has always recognized that divided responsibility is a problem
whenever group decisions are made:
▪ It often is said that actions that are several bodies’ responsibility are nobody’s
responsibility.
o Group decisions dilute and thin out responsibility.
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▪ They also give individual members (social loafers) a chance to shirk
responsibility.
• Related Problems
o A number of other behavioral afflictions that can undermine group success. Some of
these to watch out for are:
▪ Linearity bias—the propensity to make overly simple cause-effect conclusions
▪ Egocentrism—the temptation to overemphasize our own importance while
forcing a decision
▪ Framing bias—the temptation to be overly influenced by how the problem was
presented
▪ Self-confidence bias—the premature belief that the best solution has already been
uncovered
▪ Anti-statistical bias—the reluctance to examine relevant statistical information
and give weight to it
• Overcoming the Weaknesses
o Many of the disadvantages of groups meetings can be overcome readily.
▪ Proper group structures must be selected, group size should be considered, and
various leadership roles must be played.
Suggested Answers to Discussion Questions
1. Think of a part-time or full-time job that you now hold or formerly held. Identify the
informal organization that is (was) affecting your job or work group, and its effects.
Discuss how the informal leaders probably rose to their positions and how they operate.
Student answers will vary according to the jobs they choose to identify. Possible informal
2. Have you ever been in a situation where informal group norms put you in role conflict
with formal organization standards? Discuss.
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consent of McGraw-Hill Education.
worn at all times. Some informal groups think it is “cool” to not wear these items, and even
make a game of it by seeing if they can avoid being “caught” by management without their
safety equipment.
3. Discuss some of the benefits and problems that informal organizations may bring to both
a work group and an employer.
Students’ answers may vary. Figure 12.3 lists the benefits and problems for both employers
4. Think of a small group that you belonged to recently. Assess the level of its cohesiveness.
What factors contributed to, or prevented, its cohesiveness?
Students’ answers may vary. Power struggles, lack of agreement, or the lack of clear purposes
5. Thinking of that small group, explain in what ways were the members’ actions,
interactions, and sentiments were different in practice from what they were supposed to
be when the group was formed?
Students’ answers may vary. Emergent informal leaders tend to often be poor candidates for
6. Identify five specific things you will do to create an effective committee the next time you
are a leader or member of one.
Students’ answers may vary. Suggestions might include the following:
• Prepare an agenda
• Stick to it
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Copyright © 2014 McGraw-Hill Education. All rights reserved. No reproduction or distribution without the prior written
consent of McGraw-Hill Education.
• Prepare (or have the group prepare) objectives to be accomplished
• Assign specific subtasks to specific individuals or subcommittees
• Set time guidelines for what is to be accomplished by when
• Be sure to review, at the end of each committee meeting, what has been done in that
meeting and what is to happen next
Other suggestions might have to do with choosing committee members to adequately reflect
the diversity in the organization and to guard against the intrusion of groupthink into the
committee.
7. Divide a sheet of notebook paper into five columns. In the first column, under the
heading “Strengths,” list all the strengths that any of the types of group structures might
have (e.g., “generates many solutions”). Write the four types of structured approaches as
headings for the remaining columns. Indicate, by placing a check in the appropriate
column(s), which approaches might have each of the strengths you listed. (Notice that, in
essence, you are preparing your own contingency model.)
Students’ answers may vary. The Four types of structured approaches are:
8. What does consensus mean to you, from your experience? Has your understanding of it
changed since reading this chapter? What other interpretations do you think the term
has for other people?
9. The chapter mentions five major weaknesses of decision-making groups. Prepare a
counter-argument that powerfully describes some of the benefits of using groups.
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Copyright © 2014 McGraw-Hill Education. All rights reserved. No reproduction or distribution without the prior written
consent of McGraw-Hill Education.
Students’ answers may vary. Groups tend to be more accurate on certain decision tasks than
individuals. Groups can often have greater diversity of opinion and more expertise than any
one person could possibly have. Groups can be a training ground for future leaders, as they
learn leadership skills from interacting within a group. Social facilitation often occurs within
groups as well; individuals contribute more merely because others are present.
10. A manager complained recently that, “meetings are not as much fun anymore since we
started using structured approaches to group problem solving.” Explain why this might
be so. In addition to “fun,” what criteria should the manager be using to judge group
success?
Students’ answers may vary. This manager may have been the social leader of the group in the
Assess Your Own Skills
Students should honestly circle the number on the response scale that most closely reflects the
degree to which each statement accurately describes them when they have tried to lead a group or
committee. This section will help them understand how well they exhibit good group leadership
skills.
Incident
The Excelsior department store
Among other items, this case concerns informal organization, legitimacy of organizational influence,
models of change and equilibrium, and leadership styles.
With regard to informal organization, the department manager has by omission allowed conflict
between two groups to develop. If the manager had developed integrated work teams of both old and
new employees and instructed the cashier in proper conduct when the department expansion took
place, the informal group conflicts might have been avoided. Apparently the leadership style was
excessively permissive and free-rein.
12–24
breaks, on the other hand, may be left within the decision area of the informal organization, since it
does not appear to interfere with customer service. A total effort to suppress all informal practices
would be a threat to the informal organization and invite retaliation.
The straightening of stock and the cleaning appear to be a matter of fairness between two informal
groups, rather than a question of customer service. These practices interfere with commission
earnings and could lead to major employee conflicts and deteriorating service if not corrected.
Discussion of discipline in an earlier chapter indicates that rules and practices should be enforced
fairly for all groups.
Experiential Exercise
Examining Social Networks
Students have been asked to answer four questions after studying the list of class member names.
After completing the task they will have to turn in the sheets to the instructor who will then tabulate
the results and report them back to the class. The class will then discuss the data and its
characteristics, and will draw a conclusion as to what the data tells them about the informal
organization in the class.
Generating OB Insights
Students’ responses will vary for this exercise. They should however, highlight several of the major
topics discussed in the chapter such as group dynamics, the nature and effects of informal groups,
informal leaders, differences between task and social leadership roles, weaknesses of group
meetings, etc.