We have all worked in groups, starting as young as playing in groups at the playground, to project groups in our university life. Thinking back, have we committed the flaws of groupthink without knowing it?
Illusions of Invulnerability creates excessive optimism that encourages taking extreme risks.
For example, my project group is a provocative bunch. While at a supermarket researching on viable products for advertisements, We made our decision in the Personal Care section. Our product for research: Condoms.Collective Rationalisation causes the group to justify and rationalise warnings, both from internal and external sources, and not reconsider their assumptions.
For example, concerned peers have advised us against the idea of choosing condoms as our product for research, but the group justified all the advice. How difficult can such a fun topic be?Believe in the Group's own Morality causes
For example, my group does not believe that choosing to present information on Condoms is a sticky (pun not intended) subject, which might be a turn-off for some of the under-aged students in class. No Manik, put your hands down.Shared Stereotypes causes the group to think other groups who do not support the idea as ignorant, weak or stupid.
For example, a bunch or virgins from another group says that out idea is not going to work. We think that they are close minded. And virgins.Pressure on Dissenters causes the group to place pressure to any member who does not conform or questions the group.
For example, our original group of 7 members included one who did not agree with our idea, and constantly threw wet blankets. We did not enjoy being damp during group meetings, so now our group has only 6 members.Self Censorship prevents individual members of a group to express doubts or ideas which deviate from the group.
I am proud to announce that my group does not have a problem with this. Oh wait, how do I know if anyone has any doubts since every one practises Self Censorship? Crap.Illusion of Unanimity causes the group to assume that majority views and judgments are unanimous, and silence is viewed as agreement.
On a more serious note, I would like to share that assumptions without research is bad. When you assume, we make an ASS out of U and ME.Mindguards are acts of shielding or protecting members from information that is contradictory or problematic to the group's cohesiveness, view, and/or decisions.
For example, I have first hand information from the instructor grading our project that we will fail if we choose to proceed with the idea, but I'm not telling anyone. This should be fun...Having said all that, do reflect on your current project group or past experiences working in groups. Have you committed any of the above?
personally, i dun really dig project work. i have this problem, which i USUALLY (not always) feel that someone is not doing enough work, this is not looking good, that can be done better. hence, i usually prefer to do work alone, though it may not be the most creative nor witty work there is in the class, i know it was my best and i couldnt have done it any better.
ReplyDeletegroupings have pros and cons, in my most recent experience, our netball grp was divided into two smaller teams cos SIM was having an open hse and they had a street netball competition which was 4-a-side. this caused a little ruffling of feathers the wrong way as we divided ourselves. team B felt that team A was too tense and serious and they started pinpointing on the other team's gameplay. the initial factor for grouping was for the closer ones to be in one team so as to not cause any unhappiness and as such, divide the gang. in the end, it worked -- each gang got more united, and this is because they found faults with the other team.
sometimes, groupings are not in the best interests of the overall picture, and it is best to work alone, as per individual situation.
i prefer to work alone when it comes down to serious work, but i would definitely prefer our team to still retain its dynamics as ONE team, instead of one individual, or worse, one clique.
I personally like this idea - Illusions of Invulnerability. People normally like to be in their comfort zone, taking low or no risks with the things they do, be it investments, exams, projects.
ReplyDeleteBut, without Illusions of Invulnerability, what would make up of Barack Obama? The first black to run for America's Presidency.
So i think that the gp's idea of doing condoms is daring, fresh and interesting. Who knows, you might be creating the next multi-millon dollar condom empire!
Illusions of Invulnerability...a good start to life....where and how life can be in a state of life cycle...having the fact that people go through the normal way of living by day to day..rather then choosing the life WANT IT TO BE and do not anticipate how people may view u as.
ReplyDeleteCondoms...nah not enough man...do smething more "daring" viewed by locals... but then again..its a good idea and u got my full support... btw..cani join as the 7th group member...hehe...
The rational of the lists of your theory is pretty reasonable especially to those who are studying.
ReplyDeleteBeing a part time student struggling with both my studies and work at the same time, I admit that i've commited in most of the items you've mentioned.
Why? Easy. For the bosses we work for, we are always loaded with so much work that we have little time for school research. Thus we'll end up taking abit of advantage of each other to do more on certain parts of the project. I believe i'm not the only one.
I like your research on condoms though. I'll be most glad to listen to what your findings are so far. :)
Personally, I probably have done all those problems that you have mentioned. Intentionally or subconsciously. In local context, singaporeans are more often being the quiet one and not contributing to the group due to reasons of "cant be bothered" or "would i be laughed at for contributing such an idea?".
ReplyDeleteAnyway to your research of condoms, i hope you get some breakthrough, not in new flavas but maybe along the tagline of "as close to the real feelin" =)
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ReplyDeleteHehe. Your most amusing post yet. I fully support your group's decision to analyse condom advertisements. I feel it will be educational and fun for the rest of us. Include some sex ed, purlease.
ReplyDeleteOn a more serious note, group dynamics really depend on how well you know your group members. If you're unfamiliar with them, you might be afraid to step on everyone's toes and groupthink might be more apparant. However, whenever I work with close friends on a group project, alot of us have no qualms quarrelling about tiny quirks and imperfections here and there. Although, granted, my group of friends can be a super obsessive, controlling bunch of people who wants things done THEIR way. That's why after a while I preferred working with people who'd let me handle the project. xDDD Whatever works for you man. Other groups of friends could well fall into the groupthink syndrome, preferring to just follow the leader - whether it's because of trust, laziness, or some other reason, anything's possible.
Every group has members of a different characteristics and backgrounds. In the first few meetings of the project group, those who are soft spoken would most likely commit on groupthink while others who are confident and outspoken would start sharing. There may be some others who just like to sit and listen to what the other members have said and analyse on them. Given so many different types of people, one will definitely have trouble spotting people who has committed this or that.
ReplyDeleteHence, I guess it is our own responsibility to make sure that at the end of the day, we should all try our best in producing the work we were given=)
I just love the comics and your sense of humour! The thing is about groupthink is an easy way to avoid conflict.
ReplyDeleteGroup work requires us to work together to produce results. That can only happen when the group has a common strategy. Of course, the group members need to start thinking as being part of a group and not as individuals.
If not, there will be conflict and work will not be done. Rather than waste time and resources taking everyone's opinion into account, people will just indulge in groupthink.
What I am saying is that will groupthink is not all good, it has its purposes as well. What happens when an unstoppable force meets and immovable object? That will be a good time for some groupthink.
i will say that groupthink has certain advantages, especially when the deadline is drawing near and work needs to be done. of course, a capable leader needs to be in the formula as well. simply put, too many cooks spoil the broth sometimes.
ReplyDeleteit's important that people in a project group are able to come to a certain level of agreement in terms of the goals they want to achieve at the end of the project e.g. excellent grades etc.
ReplyDeletebut at the same time, too much of a good thing can be bad.
if they feel that by being unanimous in all aspects of thoughts will prevent any form of conflict and improve efficiency in getting the job done, then they are so wrong.
this will lead to groupthink, which will cause good ideas to be censored or bad ideas to continue being carried out, eventually leading to the demise of the group.
It all depends on what kind of group members you have. If you have (a) domineering individual(s) in the group, then it is likely that the group will exhibit group-think to please this individual and make life easier for everyone. At the other end of the balance, if you have a group of like-minded individuals, then I don't think much group-think will be in display since it's like working with yourself, multiplied by x-number of individuals. That said, I've never worked in a "dream group" before, where everyone shared a common goal with an unanimous opinion on how to achieve the goal. So... Group work is always bound for conflict of sorts.
ReplyDeleteSuperman! Well that caught my attention. haha.
ReplyDeleteGroupthink... sigh.. on one hand we want cohesiveness, yet when everyone is soo comfortable going along with just about everything the group decides, even if there may be something wrong, that's where problems arise.
I wonder about Mindguards sometimes... like, is there something missing? Am i being told the full story, or being kept in the dark? Well, ignorance is not always bliss.
People in the group should not be afraid to voice out their concerns or doubts.. epecially for the group project! Can you imagine if there's a major flaw that in a theory application, and for "cohesive" sake everyone keeps quiet and lets it slide. When they're marked down for that error, it could be too late.
My group's people has managed to put any "paiseh-ness" behind them when discussing the project, and everyone has been very open to constructive criticisms, or suggestions and questions. Sometimes posing questions to a person, can enable him to rethink his.. thoughts. Yah.
This is one hell of a genuine and creative post. The animations and linkage between the concepts learnt was spot on. Ok, I shant ramble about how BAD YOU'RE NOT. :).
ReplyDeleteanyway, on an academic point. I've realized that no scientific research or experiment will come out with the optimal amount for each and every group syndrome. There should be an amount of these symptons like Illusion of invulnerability, belief in group's morality and collective rationalization or even Mind guards in every group. This could bring about confidence and even stronger cohesion between members. Question is, how much is enough?.
Slize, thank you for your kind words.
ReplyDeletei do agree with you that for group synergy to happen, the group, to a certain extent, must exhibit some of the symptoms of groupthink. for example, Illusions of Invulnerability can help the group in giving them enough confidence to push forward with new and radical ideas. just as too much confidence(good) can become arrogance(bad), the important thing is to be aware of what's going on, and stop before crossing the line to the bad side.
So should we leave out project work? Yeah right I wish... But then again I am quite the controlling bitch when it comes to group work.
ReplyDeleteBut have you heard of the proponents of groups? Quite the gestalt philosophy; The majority of them believe that groups are smarter than individuals. Hence, the mushrooming of online social networks such as SBF even.
However, for the group to be smarter than the individual there needs to be a few conditions:
-Mass or randomness(people from different backgrounds, variety)
-Autonomy of voicing one's ideas
-A platform to aggregate the responses
So I suppose the reason why some groups fail is that there are some factors that breaks these conditions. Such as pressure on dissenters takign away some autonomy in responses. And that having shared stereotypes basically means that your group isn't varied enough.
Well that's what I think anyways...
Norisha, i reading up on proponents of groups on wikipedia, but could not find any information.
ReplyDeletehowever, i find a similarity between Gestalt's theory and groupthink. groups are smarter than individual sounds like an Illusion of Invulnerability.
don't you think so?
Hey Zed, thanks for commenting on my blog! =)
ReplyDeleteI guess that is the purpose of group projects: learning to cope with the human elements. Essentially, teamwork is important in today's society. Bosses are constantly looking for a team-player, even if you are a brillant individual who does excellent work, as long as if you cannot communicate effectively and work with others, you may not be able to stay long in the job. Such is the harshness of the reality.