Groupthink is a threat to critical thinking, where members of a group make decisions under presumed pressure to come with a collaborative result. Groupthink focuses on the end output of the team, instead of individual credibility for making decisions (Kenny, 2016). Thinking as a group is productive when everyone has an opportunity to raise points for the total outcome, but there are always some outspoken team members taking the spot, and introverts play a silent role in the discussion. Without proper facilitation, group members feel a lack of credibility, and indifferent to contribute individually. Eventually, the whole process fails the implication of critical thinking.
I’ve observed group thinking on several different occasions. The best place to observe group think is class projects, where we get a team of busy professionals and full-time students. There are always one or two-person takes the lead, and one or two-person takes the passenger chair. The final project reflects the learning of one or two-person, and the whole group gets the credit. There are tools improvised to encourage equal participation, such as group rating, review, contribution percentage, presentation. It’s obvious the outcome is far better than individual projects, but not the result of maximum utilization of total team members.
In the professional field, the issue becomes more vibrant and troublesome. Considering research collaboration, the main author pours everything to get the project running, whereas co-authors feel indifferent and try to contribute as much they have to. Here the leader must play his role and ensure participation, but the end result often lacks in critical thinking of individuals. At the same time, for conflict resolution, the group starts thinking critically and results in unnecessary collaboration of the conflict. From my perspective, a group should have a well seasoned positional leader, and the leader’s characteristics will be important for success. But goal should be always individual, there might be a shared path, but without individual objective people often fail to well-cultivated critical thinking.
Kenny, J. (2016, June 16). Critical thinking [Powerpoint Slides]. Penn State University. https://psu.instructure.com/courses/2091733/files/116535295?module_item_id=30864442
Hello Farhan – Great examples of where to observe groupthink in both professional and educational settings. I would wholeheartedly agree that those situations happen very often in the situations that you described. It is very difficult to change mindsets when you see it happening so often times it is easier to just go along with the group and get the assignment completed.