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Abstract：Groupthink is a phenomenon existing in the decision making process within the organization， especially in the cohesive group. There are several challenges of groupthink will have during the decision making process which might leads to great negative effect on the organization. These challenges and their reasons will be analyzed in this paper. And then， on the bases of this analysis the paper will introduces how can the organization avoid the negative effect of groupthink. Then draw the conclusion.
Keywords：groupthink；challenges； organization，；decision making process
1. Introduction
Asch（1956） analyzed the independence and conformity from the perspective of social psychology through conducting experiments on subjects when they make decisions within the group. He considered that there existing a psychological tendency among the members of the group that is to ‘uncritical acceptance’ of group ideas and evaluations（Asch， 1956）. And due to the great power of the group， maybe it’s easily for us to say that persons shift their decisions and convictions granting of this power in almost any desired direction， which we deemed false yesterday but now they can prompt us to say true（Asch， 1956）. Just this great power within the group， easily lead to the existence of what we called groupthink. Based on the experiments， Asch draw the conclusion that ‘The duty of the government is to do the will of the majority，even if you are convinced that they are wrong’（Asch， 1956）. The concept of groupthink was given by Irving L. Janis（1971） in his article named Groupthink， which clearly stated the reason of why he focus on the groupthink research and his worries about the negative effect of the decisions made by the government. Then Janis analyzed the reasons and the symptoms of groupthink， declared the products and support， he also gave us some remedies to deal with the influences of groupthink and how can we avoid the negative effect of groupthink.
Summarized lot of fruitful researches of former scholars， showed us the factors contribute to the groupthink and overview the group characteristics， told us the directions for further study. More researches and experiments were being conducted in the recent years， based on the theory of groupthink. They attempt to find the solutions of preventing groupthink and apply this theory into different industries.
2. The brief introduction of groupthink
Groupthink is a phenomenon existing in the decision making process within the organization， especially in the cohesive groups. The minority persons do not want to share their own opinions which are against the main stream thinking format of the group in order to avoid the responsibility of risks. Even when the candidate decisions are not suitable for the group， they still keep silence. That’s the social psychological thinking style what we called ‘Groupthink’. This kind of decision making process has it’s advantages， like gathering more information and more ideas about what to do， so as to supplement the decision making group of what they have to take into account. Of course it also has several disadvantages so that the organization has to pay attention to when they decide to making decisions within the group. 3. The challenges of groupthink and the reasons explanation
On the bases of introductions above， what we can know is that groupthink can bring positive effect as well as negative effect for the group. Then will focus on the challenges of groupthink and avoid these challenges during the decision making process within the group.
a）Group pressure
People tend to seek protection in the group when there is a need for them to make decision， it’s hard for them to keep their own opinions which are opposite to other members of this group， especially in a cohesive group. For one reason is that the one have to consider the result of persistence their own opinions， for what may let them being isolated by other colleagues. The other reason is that if one stick on the different thinking mode and consist on his own idea， he has to responsible for the relevant risks and obviously that is dangerous for the sense of security in-group. Last but not least， persons tend to strengthen their feelings when they take part in the group meeting， such as if they disagree the candidate decision， they will go to a extremely opponent to the decision during the meeting. That’s all because of group pressures for the persons to do the wrong decision and appear the phenomenon of groupthink.
b）Lack of deep thinking and investigation
When we decided to make decisions by the group instead of only by the leader himself， members of the group all come up with what they are thinking about at that moment， most of the ideas are simple， rough and scattered， they are in a large amount and wide scope， but lack of deep thinking and adequate investigation. These ideas do little help to the decision making for the group except for wasting time and energy. Another reason is that people easily affected by the ideas of someone else. Then go far from what they are thinking themselves， as well as what the group have to make decision on.
c）Lack of innovation ideas
When a decision need to be made， one useful standard of judging whether it’s a good innovation or not is that the person who came up with this idea， does he spent long time concentrate on this problem and have deeply adequate thinking？ For members of the group， they usually tend to follow the main stream of decision making thinking mode. Satisfied with the experience and methods that already exist， even when they deal with the new conditions and new challenges. Lack of innovation spirit and motivation inspiration. If there are some environment when they have to make decisions publicly， they are willing to follow others to do the decisions，in order to protect themselves from taking responsibility. So that there is a great significant for the decision makers to find suitable solutions to solve this situation and create an innovation leading atmosphere within the group. 4. How to avoid groupthink
On the bases of knowing the challenges of groupthink， it’s necessary for the organization to avoid the negative effect of groupthink.
a） Enough thinking preparation of individual before the decision made
Independent thinking of the individuals before the decision made in the group scope is very necessary. Through the discussion of independence and conformity in the paper of Asch， encourage the independent thinking of members in the group and concentrate on the circumstance of the problem， then focus on searching for better solutions for the problem. Only after the thinking processes like this， the person will have his own critical thinking result and the reasons why he stands for this and against that opinion.
b） Share the ideas and conduct enough comparison
When the members of the group share their ideas， the leader of the group shouldn’t hold bias on any kind of opinions， otherwise the opposite opinion will dare not to say anything. Encourage all the members to express their thinking and ask everyone to write down all these ideas when others are expressing. Nobody is allowed to judge others’ opinion but only listening. After all they shared， as well as the silent thinking and inspired by others， all the members can communicate their judgment of any ideas and their reasons why they support the opinions of themselves. After adequate discussion and enough comparison among all the decisions， choose a best one. Through this method， the negative of groupthink will be reduced on some degree， and will benefit the group to make a more wisdom decision.
c） Avoid making decision optionally and blindly
That is a big mistake for the group to make decisions optionally and blindly. The enterprise is a typical organization to earn profit and every decision they made has to serve for this target. There is no doubt that the purpose of capability is to quest for profit. All the members of the group need to have the awareness of this characteristic of the group. When they participate into the decision making process， consider the cost and outcome into their account. On the other hand， if the group know nothing about one project or not familiar with the particular field， the wise decision is do not making decision on it before adequate investigation. Do not haste to make decisions on the unfamiliar field but for the entire development of the enterprise.
5. Conclusion
In summary， groupthink has no guilty itself， but there are some points needed to be pay attention to when the decision makers decided to make decisions within the group. Groupthink is existing during the decision making process might leads to great negative effect on the organization. There are several questions of groupthink can be further studied in the future， because the psychological of social members always affect the output and efficiency of the development of the group. Try to find the reasons and search for better solutions to reduce the negative effect of this phenomenon， will benefit the group in a long run. References：
[1]Asch， Solomon E. （1956） ‘Studies of independence and conformity： A minority of one against a unanimous majority’. Psychological Monographs： General and Applied 70/9： 1-70.
[2]Milgram， Stanley （1963） ‘Behavioral study of obedience’. Journal of Abnormal and Social Psychology 67/4： 371-378.
[3]Ivring L.Janis （1971） ‘Groupthink’. Psychological Today， November 1971， 432-444.
[4]Perry Gina. Seeing is believing： The role of the film Obedience in shaping perceptions of Milgram’s Obedience to Authority experiments[J]. Theory &； Psychology，2015，255.
[5]Marlene E. Turner，Anthony R. Pratkanis. Preventing Groupthink Risk through Deliberative
[6]Discussion： Further Experimental Evidence for a Social Identity Maintenance Model[J].
[7]International Journal of Risk and Contingency Management （IJRCM），2014，31.
Supported by the Hebei province social science development research project （No.： 2015031206） and Supported by the scientific planning research project of Hebei provincial department of housing and construction （No.： 2012-158）.
About the author：
Zhu Daijun， Graduate student of Hebei University of Engineering， Major in Business Administration. Address： Hebei University of Engineering， Handan， Hebei.
Keywords：groupthink；challenges； organization，；decision making process
1. Introduction
Asch（1956） analyzed the independence and conformity from the perspective of social psychology through conducting experiments on subjects when they make decisions within the group. He considered that there existing a psychological tendency among the members of the group that is to ‘uncritical acceptance’ of group ideas and evaluations（Asch， 1956）. And due to the great power of the group， maybe it’s easily for us to say that persons shift their decisions and convictions granting of this power in almost any desired direction， which we deemed false yesterday but now they can prompt us to say true（Asch， 1956）. Just this great power within the group， easily lead to the existence of what we called groupthink. Based on the experiments， Asch draw the conclusion that ‘The duty of the government is to do the will of the majority，even if you are convinced that they are wrong’（Asch， 1956）. The concept of groupthink was given by Irving L. Janis（1971） in his article named Groupthink， which clearly stated the reason of why he focus on the groupthink research and his worries about the negative effect of the decisions made by the government. Then Janis analyzed the reasons and the symptoms of groupthink， declared the products and support， he also gave us some remedies to deal with the influences of groupthink and how can we avoid the negative effect of groupthink.
Summarized lot of fruitful researches of former scholars， showed us the factors contribute to the groupthink and overview the group characteristics， told us the directions for further study. More researches and experiments were being conducted in the recent years， based on the theory of groupthink. They attempt to find the solutions of preventing groupthink and apply this theory into different industries.
2. The brief introduction of groupthink
Groupthink is a phenomenon existing in the decision making process within the organization， especially in the cohesive groups. The minority persons do not want to share their own opinions which are against the main stream thinking format of the group in order to avoid the responsibility of risks. Even when the candidate decisions are not suitable for the group， they still keep silence. That’s the social psychological thinking style what we called ‘Groupthink’. This kind of decision making process has it’s advantages， like gathering more information and more ideas about what to do， so as to supplement the decision making group of what they have to take into account. Of course it also has several disadvantages so that the organization has to pay attention to when they decide to making decisions within the group. 3. The challenges of groupthink and the reasons explanation
On the bases of introductions above， what we can know is that groupthink can bring positive effect as well as negative effect for the group. Then will focus on the challenges of groupthink and avoid these challenges during the decision making process within the group.
a）Group pressure
People tend to seek protection in the group when there is a need for them to make decision， it’s hard for them to keep their own opinions which are opposite to other members of this group， especially in a cohesive group. For one reason is that the one have to consider the result of persistence their own opinions， for what may let them being isolated by other colleagues. The other reason is that if one stick on the different thinking mode and consist on his own idea， he has to responsible for the relevant risks and obviously that is dangerous for the sense of security in-group. Last but not least， persons tend to strengthen their feelings when they take part in the group meeting， such as if they disagree the candidate decision， they will go to a extremely opponent to the decision during the meeting. That’s all because of group pressures for the persons to do the wrong decision and appear the phenomenon of groupthink.
b）Lack of deep thinking and investigation
When we decided to make decisions by the group instead of only by the leader himself， members of the group all come up with what they are thinking about at that moment， most of the ideas are simple， rough and scattered， they are in a large amount and wide scope， but lack of deep thinking and adequate investigation. These ideas do little help to the decision making for the group except for wasting time and energy. Another reason is that people easily affected by the ideas of someone else. Then go far from what they are thinking themselves， as well as what the group have to make decision on.
c）Lack of innovation ideas
When a decision need to be made， one useful standard of judging whether it’s a good innovation or not is that the person who came up with this idea， does he spent long time concentrate on this problem and have deeply adequate thinking？ For members of the group， they usually tend to follow the main stream of decision making thinking mode. Satisfied with the experience and methods that already exist， even when they deal with the new conditions and new challenges. Lack of innovation spirit and motivation inspiration. If there are some environment when they have to make decisions publicly， they are willing to follow others to do the decisions，in order to protect themselves from taking responsibility. So that there is a great significant for the decision makers to find suitable solutions to solve this situation and create an innovation leading atmosphere within the group. 4. How to avoid groupthink
On the bases of knowing the challenges of groupthink， it’s necessary for the organization to avoid the negative effect of groupthink.
a） Enough thinking preparation of individual before the decision made
Independent thinking of the individuals before the decision made in the group scope is very necessary. Through the discussion of independence and conformity in the paper of Asch， encourage the independent thinking of members in the group and concentrate on the circumstance of the problem， then focus on searching for better solutions for the problem. Only after the thinking processes like this， the person will have his own critical thinking result and the reasons why he stands for this and against that opinion.
b） Share the ideas and conduct enough comparison
When the members of the group share their ideas， the leader of the group shouldn’t hold bias on any kind of opinions， otherwise the opposite opinion will dare not to say anything. Encourage all the members to express their thinking and ask everyone to write down all these ideas when others are expressing. Nobody is allowed to judge others’ opinion but only listening. After all they shared， as well as the silent thinking and inspired by others， all the members can communicate their judgment of any ideas and their reasons why they support the opinions of themselves. After adequate discussion and enough comparison among all the decisions， choose a best one. Through this method， the negative of groupthink will be reduced on some degree， and will benefit the group to make a more wisdom decision.
c） Avoid making decision optionally and blindly
That is a big mistake for the group to make decisions optionally and blindly. The enterprise is a typical organization to earn profit and every decision they made has to serve for this target. There is no doubt that the purpose of capability is to quest for profit. All the members of the group need to have the awareness of this characteristic of the group. When they participate into the decision making process， consider the cost and outcome into their account. On the other hand， if the group know nothing about one project or not familiar with the particular field， the wise decision is do not making decision on it before adequate investigation. Do not haste to make decisions on the unfamiliar field but for the entire development of the enterprise.
5. Conclusion
In summary， groupthink has no guilty itself， but there are some points needed to be pay attention to when the decision makers decided to make decisions within the group. Groupthink is existing during the decision making process might leads to great negative effect on the organization. There are several questions of groupthink can be further studied in the future， because the psychological of social members always affect the output and efficiency of the development of the group. Try to find the reasons and search for better solutions to reduce the negative effect of this phenomenon， will benefit the group in a long run. References：
[1]Asch， Solomon E. （1956） ‘Studies of independence and conformity： A minority of one against a unanimous majority’. Psychological Monographs： General and Applied 70/9： 1-70.
[2]Milgram， Stanley （1963） ‘Behavioral study of obedience’. Journal of Abnormal and Social Psychology 67/4： 371-378.
[3]Ivring L.Janis （1971） ‘Groupthink’. Psychological Today， November 1971， 432-444.
[4]Perry Gina. Seeing is believing： The role of the film Obedience in shaping perceptions of Milgram’s Obedience to Authority experiments[J]. Theory &； Psychology，2015，255.
[5]Marlene E. Turner，Anthony R. Pratkanis. Preventing Groupthink Risk through Deliberative
[6]Discussion： Further Experimental Evidence for a Social Identity Maintenance Model[J].
[7]International Journal of Risk and Contingency Management （IJRCM），2014，31.
Supported by the Hebei province social science development research project （No.： 2015031206） and Supported by the scientific planning research project of Hebei provincial department of housing and construction （No.： 2012-158）.
About the author：
Zhu Daijun， Graduate student of Hebei University of Engineering， Major in Business Administration. Address： Hebei University of Engineering， Handan， Hebei.