Organizational Tonypandy: Lessons from a Quarter Century of the Groupthink Phenomenon

Sticking to our guns: social identity as a basis for the maintenance of commitment to faltering organizational projects

“…In particular, as noted in the Introduction, it is apparent that from the time of Janis's pioneering work, the consensus-seeking and consensus-maintaining features of the process have been construed in a very pejorative light. Indeed, as other commentators have observed (e.g., Fuller & Aldag, 1998), the notion of groupthink has transcended academic boundaries to become a neo-Orwellian shorthand term for all that is deficient about groups and their decision-making.…”

“…impossible to do so). In this vein, Fuller and Aldag (1998;Aldag & Fuller, 1993) also add that research into small group decision-making has effectively been hijacked and straight-jacketed by groupthinkrelated ideas-with the result that the area is narrowly defined and disconnected from other fields to which it is related. They suggest that if the groupthink model had been subjected to the level of scrutiny and external appraisal that Janis himself recommended, it would have been discarded long ago and that by 'evangelizing' the model, researchers have persisted in 'worship [ing] a metaphor for malice [that] is simplistic and limiting' (Fuller & Aldag, 1998, p. 181).…”

An Empirical Assessment of the Influence of March and Simon’s Organizations: The Realized Contribution and Unfulfilled Promise of a Masterpiece

“…This statement sounds similar to a central proposition of Irving Janis’s () influential theory of groupthink, although with the opposite causal direction; namely, Janis argued that high cohesion is a condition that promotes groupthink. Scholars have argued that empirical research has not supported Janis’s assertion (Fuller and Aldag, ).…”

“…This statement sounds similar to a central proposition of Irving Janis's (1972) influential theory of groupthink, although with the opposite causal direction; namely, Janis argued that high cohesion is a condition that promotes groupthink. Scholars have argued that empirical research has not supported Janis's assertion (Fuller and Aldag, 1998 A fifth contribution is our identification and aggregation of the criticisms that scholars have levelled at Organizations over the past half-century -an important step in assessing the validity of the assertions made by its authors. Our analysis of negational citation contexts found that relatively few authors have disputed claims made in Organizations.…”

The Psychology of Global Warming

“…The second phenomenon in Table 4 is "groupthink," a term coined by Janis (1972) that has become a catchall label for defective decision making that can arise from groups with dysfunctional dynamics (Fuller and Aldag 1998). We are not asserting that groupthink has taken hold of the climate science community; this is highly unlikely because there is too much to be gained for individuals who provide rigorous and scientifically defensible alternative ideas.…”