Practice question · Multiple choice
An executive committee of long-time colleagues approves a doomed acquisition unanimously; afterwards, several admit they had private doubts. Janis would call this…
Hints
- The doubts existed, where did they go?
- Harmony was prized over accuracy.
Show the answer
D. Groupthink: cohesion suppressed the dissent
Why
Classic groupthink signature: private doubts plus public unanimity. The cure is procedural — devil’s advocates, anonymous pre-votes, the boss speaking last — because the flaw is in the group’s structure, not its members’ intelligence.
Practise Groups and Organizations
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More questions on Groups and Organizations
- A dyad is generally more stable than a triad, because two people have fewer relationships to manage.
- The rival firm’s team is a reference group, not an out-group. Why is that distinction worth keeping?
- Weberian feature or bureaucratic pathology? Sort each observation.
- Match each concept to its definition.
- A cohesive board unanimously approves a bad acquisition, and afterwards several members admit they had…
- Which are characteristics of Weber’s ideal-type bureaucracy?
- Order the stages by which a cohesive committee slides into groupthink.
- Complete Cooley’s distinction.