Groupthink: Impacts on Decision-Making & How to Prevent - Essay Sample

Define Groupthink and discuss the negative impact it can have on the decision-making process? What are the ways to prevent the effects of Groupthink?

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Groupthink may get defined as a decision-making process in which an individual arrives at the final decision based on influence by other individuals around them. This could be friends, relatives, or any other people who the decision makes regularly interact with frequently. This leads to the making of a decision that is not the best possible to the underlying problem but instead is based on what these individuals think is the best solution.

Explain what project managers can do to ensure alternatives will be developed?

Project managers are charged with the task of overseeing project tasks and goals implementation. The project manager serves as the lead instructor who gives directions on the path to be followed in the course of the project execution. However, in some instances, some challenges get encountered during the implementation of the task resulting in the necessity to develop alternatives to ensure task completion. To ensure that other options are developed, the project manager could give the group leaders for each workgroup the autonomy to use the best possible alternative if a chosen approach fails to fit in a particular task. This will ensure that other options are always developed where required.

When it is time to execute a decision, Project Managers can be faced with several challenges that can lead to plan deviation, waning support due to frequent adjustments to an agreed-upon plan, and reluctance to process feedback. Explain what project managers can do to prevent or mitigate the impact of these challenges?

During the implementation phase of the project, various unprecedented challenges are encountered in the field, thereby necessitating adjustments in the original plan. However, this may be an opposite approach in the project implementation, given that it may affect the donors or funders' interest in the project, which may result in the pulling of funding from the project. As a result, project managers must ensure that they try as much to stick to the original project outline to avoid too many modifications during the implementation phase. These changes could also get avoided by ensuring that the project design adheres to realistic goals that can be achieved, which in turn makes the project implementation easier.

Motivate

Explain the models to aid Project Managers getting "inside the heads of other people" on projects to understand better what makes them tick to align them with project tasks best?

During any project work, the project team must share a common goal and vision for the project outcomes. This is the duty of the project manager to ensure that every member of the project feels appreciated and essential towards the realization of the final set out objectives. The manager could attain this through the development of a healthy working relationship amongst the workers. A hospitable working environment ensures that the team members can work in unison towards the achievement of the final set out goals. The manager could, therefore, use this technique to mobilize the workforce, thereby ensuring that the team is best aligned towards the best possible implementation of the project goals (Scott-Young, Christina, and Danny Samson p. 749-766s).

A simplified approach to understanding the personality of oneself as well as others are called the Enneagram. Define the nine personality traits? Explain the advantages of a project management perspective. Identify

Fig.1 The nine personality traits explained.

The figure above is a depiction of the nine personality traits. From a project management point of view, the project manager can delegate tasks accordingly to the project members depending on their personality traits. For instance, an individual with a performer personality could be assigned a leadership task in which they could lead a given workforce group. This is because their nature is oriented towards the success and gaining of approval from the team. As a result, this individual will be in a position to ensure that the required tasks are implemented as delegated.

Identify the personality that you identify with the MOST and support it with a specific project-based example or scenario you have encountered?

From a personal point of view, I would say that the personality that I best identify with is the perfectionist. From a young age, I have always been obsessed with the fact of ensuring that everything is in order. As I grew up, I have always strived to attain perfection in many areas of life, such as my educational goals, sports, and other activities that I take part in. In a project group work, I think the role of a manager could suit me best as I would ensure that every single activity gets attended to in detail, therefore, allowing for perfect job execution.

Works Cited

Scott-Young, Christina, and Danny Samson. "Project success and project team management: Evidence from capital projects in the process industries." Journal of Operations Management 26.6 (2008): 749-766.