ORGANIZATIONAL TONYPANDY - LESSONS FROM A QUARTER-CENTURY OF THE GROUPTHINK PHENOMENON

We adopt the role of devil's advocate, arguing that the quarter-centur y experience with groupthink represents an unfortunate episode in the history of group problem solving research. In view of the facts that t here has been remarkably little empirical support for the groupthink p henomenon, that the phenomenon rests on arguable assumptions, that pub lished critiques of groupthink have generally been ignored by groupthi nk researchers, and that groupthink is presented as fact in journal ar ticles and textbooks, we see continued advocacy of groupthink as a for m of organizational Tonypandy, in which knowledgeable individuals fail to speak out against widely accepted but erroneous beliefs. We explor e the nature and causes of this Tonypandy and encourage researchers to cast off the artificial determinism and constraints of the groupthink model and instead seek to inform the general group decision making li terature. (C) 1998 Academic Press.