Communication and Team Decision Making Part 1: Sharpening the Team Mind: Communi

Question

Communication and Team Decision Making

Part 1: Sharpening the Team Mind: Communication and Collective Intelligence

A. What are some of the possible biases and points of error that may arise in team communication systems? what are some other examples of how team communication problems can lead to disaster?

B. Revisit communication failure. Identify the possible causes of communication or decision-making failure in each example, and, drawing on the information presented in the chapter, discuss measures that might have prevented problems from arising within each team’s communication system.

Part 2: Team Decision-Making: Pitfalls and Solutions A. What are the key symptoms of groupthink? What problems and shortcomings can arise in the decision-making process as a result of groupthink?

B. Do you think that individuals or groups are better decision-makers? Justify your choice. In what situations would individuals be more effective decision-makers than groups, and in what situations would groups be better than individuals

Explanation / Answer

A. Team communication systems are sometimes plagued by biases against individuals and groups on the basis of race, gender, ethnicity, age, physical looks, sexual orientation, food habits, languages, religious beliefs and so on. These biases slowly create feeling on non inclusion, seclusion and neglect among the sufferers and if not corrected on time, may lead to feelings of permanant hatred, clashes of cultures and beliefs, for which the organization pays dearly.

Besides biases, the communications gaps may arise due to organizational bureaucracy, groupthink, lack of clear guidelines from management, poor decision making skills of managers and preassumptions and perceptions about a section of employees.

B. Failures in communication may cause because of deadlock in beliefs, assumptions, preoccupations and reservations of various groups about one another, lack of cultural sensitivity, vested interests of parties that like the gaps to exist and hesitant decision making by the authorities. Preventive measure may include early detection of issues, training in cultural sensitivity, involvement of top management, clear and rational decision making and conflict detection and resolution skills on the part of management.

Part 2

A. Groupthink can be characterised as excessive harmony between the group members that leads to bad decision making because the members are reluctant to go against the group even if they think otherwise.

Common symptoms are Illusion of invulnerability ( excessive optimism),unquestioned beliefs, rationalizing, stereotyping, self censorship, illusion of unanimity, pressure to conform and mindguards.

Groupthink forces the group members to desist from rational thinking and often lead to the decisions that are liked by majority, not what is right. Usually these decisions are of low quality.

B. It depends upon the situation. In some cases, individual can be a good decision maker while in others group decision is better. Situations where isntant and swift decision making is the need of hour, a single person can be a better decision maker. An example is response in a war zone, or an emergency landing of an aircraft that is running out of fuel. In other situations, where the situation requires thoughtful inputs from a number of members to reach an informed decision, like deciding on the annual strategic growth plan of th company, group decision making often yields better results.

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