My response to the "host's note":
Groupthink as used by Irving Janis in his book Groupthink (2d ed., 1982)
refers to "a mode thinking that people engage in when they are deeply
involved in a cohesive in-group, when the members' strivings for unanimity
override their motivation to realistically appraise courses of action."
Generally occurs because no one risks "upsetting the apple cart." Jerry
Harvey refers to it as the Abilene Paradox.
At 10:06 PM 12/14/97 +1300, you wrote:
>[Host's Note: Group-think... I believe this is the tendency of a group to
>narrow it's range of thinking, not consider alternatives, become blind to
>failure-modes, and become over confident in the work of the group because
>1) everyone sees others agreeing and 2) people think "someone else must
>have considered that..." It's a 70's theory, and I don't recall the
>academic who named it. ...Rick]
--Richard Scherberger <rshrbrgr@lvnworth.com>
Learning-org -- Hosted by Rick Karash <rkarash@karash.com> Public Dialog on Learning Organizations -- <http://www.learning-org.com>