Discussion 6 Homogeneous groups, writing homework help

Disc 6
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Homogenous groups are comprised of team members that have similar backgrounds, such as gender, race, or age; group members think alike because they have relatable traits or attributes. Their decision-making process benefits from increased cooperation and participation, however, they suffer from lack of creativity because there are no opposing views to challenge the team. Heterogenous groups are comprised of team members from a variety of backgrounds, such as different cultures or professions. Their ideas are very different from one another and they benefit from multiple points of view and innovative decision-making. The down sides to heterogenous groups are communication barriers, competition, and conflict.

In my experience with groups, the problem I am most familiar with is trying to get through the “storming” stage of group development. Two contradicting issues have been that either too many people want to be the leader or no one wants to take the lead in the group. The time spent on trying to get team members to overcome conflicting views, high egos, or low self-esteem led to many delays on assignments/tasks. We would literally be working on assignments until the very last minute and this was frustrating because I don’t like working under the pressure of time constraints. Like the Challenger case, time pressure can lead to cutting corners and sloppy work.

Groupthink is the consensus of opinions and ideas within a homogenous group and lacks the critical thinking component of decision-making. Groupthink is linked to group norms in that they follow an informal set of rules which establish the behavior of the group. Groupthink is not harmful in simple, routine decision-making like where to buy lunch, but it can be detrimental when making complex decisions like strategy or operations management. I have experienced groupthink in the past which was caused by the fact that the group wanted to come up with a quick solution. The result was a poor decision that only resolved a symptom of the problem, not the root of the problem. A good way to reduce this group decision-making struggle in the future is to use implement the eight elements of critical thinking. When complicated problems arise, the most important step is to identify the correct decision problem because making a decision based on the wrong problem is a waste of time and resources.

References

Halvorson, H. (2014). Get your team to do what it says it’s going to do. On leading the focused organization, 82-87.

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