Groupthink Research Paper

When analyzing team-based structures, it is apparent that utilizing teams in organizations present both advantages and disadvantages. Organizations who use team-based structures to achieve their goals can often benefit from numerous advantages such as enhanced communication and coordination, greater innovation, the ability to address complex problems, and better sharing of information than if an organization solely had individuals working alone. However, there can also be numerous disadvantages when utilizing team-based structures, such as potential interpersonal conflicts, differing views within groups, coordination issues and competing goals. In many instances, the success or failure of a team can be conducive to the collective personalities

Groupthink, interpersonal conflicts, differing views and coordination issues can be detrimental disadvantages of teams. When groups work together in close proximity, groupthink can arise where the group essentially pressures for conformity, deterring the group from embracing minority or unpopular views. The objective for consensus agreement within the team overrides any alternative ideas or views. Groupthink can be detrimental to a group in that encourages team members to suppress alternative ideas to succumb to the dominant majority. Whereas an idea may have been explored or acted upon by an individual, when groupthink is prevalent in a team, it can deter a group from exploring other opportunities and

Conflicts can also come from faultlines in teams when they are made up of diverse surface level characteristics. Faultlines can split groups into two or more subgroups based on individual differences which can be devastating to group functioning. Faultlines can cause team members to focus more on competing with each other, taking away time from important tasks and harming group performance and cohesiveness. Teams with faultlines may make more risky decisions, not trust each other and have low group