Groupthink: Psychological Studies of Policy Decisions and Fiascos

Janis · Team Learning, Voice & Silence · Houghton Mifflin · 1982 · Paywalled

Defined groupthink — the deterioration of mental efficiency, reality testing, and moral judgment in cohesive groups under pressure toward unanimity. The canonical account of what happens when psychological safety is absent and conformity replaces honest dissent. Used to explain the Bay of Pigs, Challenger, and numerous other catastrophic decisions.

Janis, I.L. (1982) Groupthink: Psychological Studies of Policy Decisions and Fiascos. 2nd edn. Boston: Houghton Mifflin.

Neighbours (17)

• Psychological Conditions of Personal Engagement and Disengagement at Work (paper)
• Psychological Safety and Learning Behavior in Work Teams (paper)
• Some Social and Psychological Consequences of the Longwall Method of Coal-Getting (paper)
• The Challenger Launch Decision: Risky Technology, Culture, and Deviance at NASA (paper)
• Normalisation of Deviance (Challenger)
• Organizational Silence: A Barrier to Change and Development in a Pluralistic World (paper)
• Threat Rigidity Effects in Organizational Behavior: A Multilevel Analysis (paper)
• Implicit Voice Theories: Taken-for-Granted Rules of Self-Censorship at Work (paper)
• Lessons from Everest: The Interaction of Cognitive Bias, Psychological Safety, and System Complexity (paper)
• The Collapse of Sensemaking in Organizations: The Mann Gulch Disaster (paper)
• The Cost of Silence: Normalization of Deviance and Groupthink (paper)
• Barriers to PS
• Chernobyl
• Open Secrets & Half-Baked Ideas
• Safety in High-Reliability Organizations: The Role of Upward Voice, Team Learning, and Safety Climate (paper)
• Types of Silence
• PS ≠ Comfortable