The Pitfalls of Groupthink: Decision-Making in Organisations

Groupthink is a chal­lenge for intern­al communications.

Groupthink is a psy­cho­lo­gic­al phe­nomen­on where the desire for har­mony and con­form­ity with­in a group leads to irra­tion­al or dys­func­tion­al decision-mak­ing outcomes. 

The phe­nomen­on occurs when group mem­bers sup­press dis­sent­ing view­points, pri­or­it­ise con­sensus over crit­ic­al eval­u­ation, and are influ­enced by the group’s over­rid­ing desire to main­tain a cohes­ive social identity.

Here we go:

Groupthink and Poor Decision-Making

Groupthink is a concept in organ­isa­tion­al beha­viour. It sug­gests that when a group’s cohes­ive­ness is overly depend­ent on the per­son­al appeal of its mem­bers, it is more likely to lead to poor decision-making. 

This is because such a basis for cohe­sion can over­shad­ow ration­al, crit­ic­al think­ing, and lead to con­sensus-seek­ing at the cost of con­sid­er­ing diverse view­points or altern­at­ive solutions. 

“Groupthink the­ory sug­gests poor decision-mak­ing is most likely when group cohe­sion is based on per­son­al attract­ive­ness of mem­bers, but broad­er and con­sist­ent use of group dynam­ics research can advance under­stand­ing of decision-mak­ing prob­lems.”
Source: Organisational beha­vi­or and human decision pro­cesses ¹McCauley, C. (1998). Group Dynamics in Janis’s Theory of Groupthink: Backward and Forward. Organisational beha­vi­or and human decision pro­cesses, 73 ²⁄₃, … Continue read­ing

Effective intern­al com­mu­nic­a­tion strategies can intro­duce struc­tured meth­ods for decision-mak­ing, such as soli­cit­ing anonym­ous feed­back, encour­aging debate, and ensur­ing the rep­res­ent­a­tion of diverse per­spect­ives in meet­ings and discussions. 

In essence, by fos­ter­ing a cul­ture of open com­mu­nic­a­tion and crit­ic­al eval­u­ation, intern­al com­mu­nic­a­tions enable organ­isa­tions to make well-con­sidered, innov­at­ive, and effect­ive decisions.

Groupthink and Internal Communications

Internal com­mu­nic­a­tions shape an organisation’s cul­ture, foster open dia­logue, and ensure diverse view­points are heard and considered. 

When group­think pre­vails, it leads to a uni­form­ity of thought that stifles cre­ativ­ity and innovation. 

This phe­nomen­on is haz­ard­ous in a cor­por­ate set­ting where crit­ic­al decisions must bal­ance vari­ous per­spect­ives and risks. 

The tend­ency to con­form to the major­ity view or the opin­ion of cha­ris­mat­ic lead­ers, often driv­en by a desire to main­tain har­mony or cohe­sion with­in the team, can res­ult in over­look­ing poten­tial prob­lems, fail­ing to explore altern­at­ive strategies, and mak­ing sub­op­tim­al decisions. 

By pro­mot­ing a cul­ture of open­ness and psy­cho­lo­gic­al safety, where employ­ees feel com­fort­able express­ing their views without fear of retri­bu­tion, intern­al com­mu­nic­a­tions can help pre­vent the insu­lar think­ing that leads to groupthink. 

Therefore, intern­al com­mu­nic­a­tions must act­ively cul­tiv­ate an envir­on­ment where dis­sent­ing opin­ions are val­ued and crit­ic­al think­ing is encour­aged, thereby mit­ig­at­ing the risks asso­ci­ated with groupthink.

Why Groups Are Sensitive To Pressure

Groups are par­tic­u­larly sus­cept­ible to pres­sure due to the inher­ent desire to main­tain a pos­it­ive social iden­tity with­in the group. This desire often leads to group­think, where the group’s col­lect­ive effort to pre­serve its cohe­sion and avoid dis­ap­prov­al can res­ult in poor decision-making. 

“Groupthink is a col­lect­ive effort to main­tain social iden­tity, with groups mak­ing poor decisions when faced with poten­tial neg­at­ive views, but pro­du­cing high­er qual­ity decisions when giv­en an excuse for poor per­form­ance.”
Source: Journal of Personality and Social Psychology ²Turner, M., Pratkanis, A., Probasco, P., & Leve, C. (1992). Threat, Cohesion, and Group Effectiveness: Testing a Social Identity Maintenance Perspective on Groupthink. Journal of Personality … Continue read­ing

This is espe­cially true when the group per­ceives a threat of neg­at­ive views from extern­al sources. In such scen­ari­os, the pres­sure to con­form and main­tain a uni­fied front can over­ride indi­vidu­al judg­ment and crit­ic­al think­ing, lead­ing to decisions pri­or­it­ising group har­mony over the qual­ity of the outcome. 

Interestingly, groups can pro­duce high­er-qual­ity decisions when they have an excuse for poten­tially poor per­form­ance. This implies that when the pres­sure of main­tain­ing a flaw­less image alle­vi­ates, group mem­bers feel more lib­er­ated to express diverse opin­ions and engage in crit­ic­al and cre­at­ive thinking. 

Avoiding Groupthink in Organisations

For intern­al com­mu­nic­a­tions, there are mainly two crit­ic­al suc­cess factors for min­im­ising group­think in organisations:

Checklist for Communicative Leadership

The Checklist for Communicative Leadership

Being a great lead­er can be daunt­ing. However, with effort (and atten­tion to detail), all lead­ers can prac­tice express­ive and pre­cise communication.

How can you ensure your lead­er­ship is express­ive and pre­cise in prac­tic­al situations? 

As a rule of thumb:

Make sure to pass these com­mu­nic­at­ive lead­er­ship checks:

“Expressive and pre­cise com­mu­nic­a­tion styles have a stronger link to lead­er out­comes than per­son­al­ity traits extra­ver­sion and con­scien­tious­ness.”
Source: Human Performance ³Bakker-Pieper, A., & Vries, R. (2013). The Incremental Validity of Communication Styles Over Personality Traits for Leader Outcomes. Human Performance, 26, 1 — … Continue read­ing

Communicative Leadership (Infographic)

Learn more: The Checklist for Communicative Leadership

PR Resource: More Psychology

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Doctor Spin’s PR School: Free Psychology PR Course

Join this free Psychology PR Course to learn essen­tial skills tailored for pub­lic rela­tions pro­fes­sion­als. Start now and amp­li­fy your impact on soci­ety today.

• 58 Logical Fallacies and Cognitive Biases
• Social Group Sizes (The Social Brain Hypothesis)
• The Pitfalls of Groupthink: Decision-Making in Organisations
• Cognitive Dissonance: Mental Harmony Above All Else
• Survivorship Bias — Abraham Wald and the WWII Airplanes
• The Engagement Pyramid (The 90−9−1 Principle)
• 150 — Dunbar’s Number
• Theory of Mind: A Superpower for PR Professionals
• The Amplification Hypothesis: Counter Extreme Arguments
• The Baader-Meinhof Phenomenon: Heard About It Before?
• The Halo Effect: Why Attractiveness Matters in PR
• The Paradox of Prominence
• Parkinson’s Law & The Law of Triviality (Bike Shed Effect)
• Diffusion of Innovations

Learn more: All Free PR Courses

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PR Resource: The 3 x 3 Intranet Model

The Intranet Model

An intranet has three pil­lars and three dimensions.

The 3 Intranet Pillars

The three pil­lars form the back­bone of any effect­ive intranet, cater­ing to an organ­isa­tion’s most fun­da­ment­al needs. Each pil­lar plays a vital role in an intranet’s func­tion­al­ity and effect­ive­ness. When well-executed, they work togeth­er seam­lessly to sup­port the organ­isa­tion’s com­mu­nic­a­tion, col­lab­or­a­tion, and inform­a­tion man­age­ment needs.

When eval­u­at­ing or set­ting up an intranet, it’s cru­cial to focus on these three pillars:

Intranet mes­saging = the intranet’s mes­saging func­tion­al­ity is the core com­mu­nic­a­tion func­tion, encom­passing all forms of digit­al mes­saging, includ­ing emails, instant mes­saging, and chat rooms. It’s the primary tool for day-to-day com­mu­nic­a­tion with­in the organisation.

Intranet meet­ings = the intranet’s meet­ing func­tion­al­ity involves schedul­ing, man­aging, and facil­it­at­ing meet­ings with­in the organ­isa­tion. It includes cal­en­dar man­age­ment, video con­fer­en­cing tools, and resources for vir­tu­al collaboration.

Intranet fil­ing = the intranet’s fil­ing func­tion­al­ity refers to stor­ing, organ­ising, and retriev­ing doc­u­ments and oth­er digit­al assets on the intranet. This includes doc­u­ment man­age­ment sys­tems, digit­al lib­rar­ies, and databases.

The 3 Intranet Dimensions

By effect­ively lever­aging the three dimen­sions of an intranet, an intranet can become a power­ful tool for enhan­cing trans­par­ency, col­lab­or­a­tion, and over­all organ­isa­tion­al effi­ciency. Each dimen­sion com­ple­ments the oth­ers, cre­at­ing a com­pre­hens­ive com­mu­nic­a­tion eco­sys­tem that bene­fits the organisation.

In the con­text of an intranet, com­mu­nic­a­tion typ­ic­ally occurs in three primary dimen­sions: top-down, bot­tom-up, and horizontal. 

Top-down com­mu­nic­a­tion = the top-down dimen­sion refers to the flow of inform­a­tion from high­er levels of the organ­isa­tion’s hier­archy to lower levels. It typ­ic­ally includes offi­cial announce­ments, policy changes, organ­isa­tion­al updates, and stra­tegic directions.

Bottom-up com­mu­nic­a­tion = the bot­tom-up dimen­sion refers to the upward flow of inform­a­tion from lower-level employ­ees to the man­age­ment and lead­er­ship teams. It encom­passes staff feed­back, sug­ges­tions, con­cerns, and insights.

Horizontal com­mu­nic­a­tion = the hori­zont­al dimen­sion refers to com­mu­nic­a­tion among employ­ees at the same level with­in the organ­isa­tion­al hier­archy. It involves exchan­ging inform­a­tion, col­lab­or­at­ing, and shar­ing know­ledge among peers.

Learn more: The Intranet: The Unsung Hero Amongst PR Channels