Question

In your initial post, please address the following:

• Describe a situation, either personal or professional, where you were a part of group decision making that went against what you felt was right or best.
• Analyze what factors led you to reduce your opposition or stop arguing against the group’s stance.
  • Hint: try to use some of the factors examined in lecture that can contribute to groupthink. For instance, explain whether you were pressured by other group members to conform.
• Describe the end result of the situation. Assess whether the group was successful in its decision-making.
• Finally, evaluate how you might have behaved differently in this situation given what you learned in class so far.Summarize whether you think the pressure towards conformity and groupthink could have been reduced in this situation.

In order to engage in an active discussion environment, submit your initial discussion post by Wednesday.

Answer 1

The situation- I and a group of my classmates were given a group assignment in a certain subject. The deadline was 10 days after. There were two weekends in between (it was due next Monday) and I wanted to finish the assignment on the first weekend itself. I reckoned it would take around a full day if we all worked together. Unfortunately, most other people in my group wanted to finish the assignment on the next weekend. I personally wanted to finish the assignment as soon as possible and also wanted to catch a movie next weekend which I really wanted to see.

This lead to some arguments between us. Initially I thought it would be easy to make them understand since it really didn't seem an issue to me if we solved it earlier. But I faced much more resistance than I thought I would. While I could understand some situations, for example one person had prior commitments, the others simply didn't want to do it at that time. This then descended into everyone else talking on someone else's behalf. For example, I was told that I shouldn't even have bought up the question as other people might've made other plans. I noticed that only a couple of people kept replying over the mail while others stopped replying, maybe thinking that the matter would resolve itself. At the end the arguments devolved to us arguing about who made their plans first and who had the authority to decide. Finally I was told that since a majority of people agreed to do the assignment next weekend, I must agree.

I also realized that I was going against the majority. Since most people wanted to do it next weekend, ideally we should've done it next weekend only. I also realized that it was too trivial an issue to argue so much about. At the end we decided to do it next weekend only.

From what I've learned in class, I do realize that there was some pressure on me due to groupthink, but on the other hand I do understand that most people wanted to do the assignment next weekend only. I suppose what I would've done differently is that after an initial few rounds of discussions I simply would've taken a poll about when to do the assignment and let the matter rest whichever way it went.