Unit VII Difference Between Teamthink And Groupthink

TEAMS & GROUPS IN AN ORGANIZATION
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Distinguish between a group and a team
According to CITATION Rob18 \l 1033 (Fritz, 2018), a group is ‘usually made up of three or more people who recognize themselves as a distinct unit or department, but who work independently of each other.’ In a group, the members have fairly distinctive roles with unique goals and responsibilities. For example, a transport driver group can have members individually and independently tasked to work on specific routes.
CITATION Rob18 \l 1033 (Fritz, 2018) further defines a team as ‘A team consists of three or more people who may come from different departments within a business, but collaborate on the same purpose, goal or project.’ A team can be assembled from different departments and tasked with one specific goal that they should focus on. For example, a team can be assembled from all departments in a manufacturing firm to create a new product. Such a team would have members from the marketing department, engineering, strategic department, etc. Their assignment would be temporary, and their collaboration would end once they come up with the product.
Difference between Teamthink and Groupthink
Team thinking is the collaborative thinking of the members of a group who care about each other and their goals such that they listen carefully, consider all options and make the best decisions for themselves and those they serve CITATION Jan82 \l 1033 (Janis, 1982). In team thinking, each member of the team cares about the other members and because of the common goal and purpose they have, they become listeners to each other and evaluate each other’s ideas. Finally, the team considers all the options and make the best decision for themselves and the common purpose they have.
In a groupthink, all the members value harmony and coherence over accurate analysis and critical evaluation of issues such that they make irrational decisions. Individual CITATION Jan82 \l 1033 (Janis, 1982) members in a group are conditioned to follow the words of the leader unquestioningly, and they are discouraged from causing disagreements with the consensus. The leader is the decision maker and the members ought to refrain from expressing doubts, judgments or disagreements with the consensus CITATION Dia05 \l 1033 (Winstanley, 2005). In a groupthink, the moral and ethical consequences are ignored its objectives are marred by lack of blind creativity risk-taking is common. Groupthinking is hardly ever successful.
Benefits and drawbacks of the team think and groupthink
Teamthink
The team always comes up with the best decision. By considering all the options for the team, creativity is encouraged and voicing individual perspectives to an issue leads to a better understanding of the same and better approach to solve it. The best idea prevails that has the best interest of the group and the common objectives.
Conversely, for each team, the decision-making process takes time. A team takes into account the input of its members before they settle on the best available option for their common goal. The collaborative decision-making is often for simple tasks, and it is slow thus taking time which could be used on other far more important things.
Groupthink
In a group, the decision-making process is straightforward. By suppressing the voices of the group members, the group only executes the ideas of the leader. The group does not spend time on brainstorming ideas but executing their leaders’ visions. Groupthink works best, espe...