Aboriginal Australians—the State of Play

Case questions

1. In your experience, have you found that decision-making groups tend towards groupthink? If so, what the factors contributed to this tendency? If not, what the factors helped to prevent it?

Yes. When a guy that has a good relationship with all members in our group says “let we go eat at yasmeen”, all members are agree with his decision although cengkah café’s food more delicious.

The factors contributed to this tendency include group cohesiveness, overall group isolation, group leadership, and decision-making stress. High levels of cohesiveness decrease the amount of verbal dissension within a tight group, due to interpersonal pressure to conform. Frequently, groups reach resolutions and carry them out without conferring with any outside sources. One result of this extreme isolation is insulation from criticism. This absence of criticism may lead to illusions of group invulnerability and morality. The leadership of a group can also lead to groupthink, since complete control over the group by the leader can cause an environment in which no one states their own opinions. Any dissenting opinions tend to be suppressed through intimidation or be simply not allowing the dissenter to voice his objections. Another cause of groupthink is decisional stress. When a group is forced to make an important decision, members of a group will attempt to reduce this decisional stress through any possible means. Since this insecurity is lessened if the decision is made quickly and with little disagreement, the group can easily rationalize a decision because there of the minimal amount of dissension within the group. The positive consequences of the group’s decision serve as the main focus, while there is a minimization of any negative outcomes.

The factors helped to prevent groupthink are get a good team together, treat conflict as an essential part of a solid outcome, let members of the group know that no perspective, no question and no suggestion is...