Group Decision Making, Leadership, and Power

A set of vocabulary flashcards covering group decision making, leadership theories, social power bases, and the psychological effects of group dynamics like groupthink and obedience.

Intellective Tasks

Tasks that have a specific right or wrong answer, such as math problems.

Judgmental Tasks

Tasks for which there is no naturally correct answer, such as a jury’s verdict.

Functional Theory of Group Decision Making

The theory that skilled decision-making groups are more likely to use procedures that improve how they gather, analyze, and weight information.

Shared Mental Model

Knowledge, tasks, and expectations held in common by group members that help performance in later decision-making stages.

Brainstorming

A technique created by Alex Osborn to allow spontaneous idea generation in business meetings without the inhibition of new ideas.

Cross-cueing

A collective memory process where recall is improved through the statements made by other members of the group.

Transactive Memory

A system where information is distributed across different members of a group.

Social Decision Schemes

Explicit or implicit strategies used to select one alternative from group options, such as delegation, voting, or consensus.

Vroom’s Normative Model of Decision Making

A model that predicts the effectiveness of decision procedures (Autocratic, Consultative, or Group) across different settings.

Shared Information Bias

The tendency for groups to over-sample shared information rather than unshared information, potentially leading to poorer decisions and hidden profiles.

Group Polarization

The phenomenon where group decisions become more extreme than the initial mean of individual group members' responses.

Groupthink

A term coined by Janis describing distorted thinking that prevents rational decision making due to a desire for unanimous agreement despite conflicting evidence.

Abilene Paradox

A paradox described by Harvey ($1988$) involving pluralistic ignorance where a group takes an action that no individual member actually wants.

Entrapment

A social process where a group maintains commitment to a losing course of action due to previous sunk costs.

Leadership Emergence

The process by which an individual becomes a leader, often characterized by assertive or extraverted traits.

Leadership Effectiveness

The degree to which a leader’s traits and behaviors produce valued outcomes in terms of tasks and social goals.

Zeigeist Theory

Tolstoy's theory suggesting that leadership success is due to the situation rather than the leader's individual skill.

Initiating Structure

A leadership behavior dimension from the Ohio State University studies that focuses on task-oriented activities like coordinating and monitoring.

Consideration

A leadership behavior dimension from the Ohio State University studies that focuses on social and emotional support for group members.

Implicit Leadership Theories (ILTs)

Individual beliefs about the qualities and characteristics that define a leader.

Fiedler’s Contingency Theory

A theory stating that leadership effectiveness is determined by the interaction between the leader's style (task or person-oriented) and the situational control.

Situational Leadership

A model by Hersey and Blanchard suggesting groups benefit from leadership styles (Telling, Selling, Participating, Delegating) that match the maturity or readiness of the group.

Leader–Member Exchange Theory (LMX)

A theory focusing on the specific relationships leaders form with each individual member, involving phases of role-taking, role-making, and role-routinization.

Transactional Leadership

A style that uses a position of power to get followers to complete tasks, often through contingent rewards and management by exception.

Transformational Leadership

A style that motivates followers through higher-order needs and inspires them with purpose, intellectual stimulation, and individualized consideration.

Level 5 Leadership

A concept where an executive leader combines personal humility with professional will to build enduring greatness.

Destructive Obedience

The willingness of individuals to obey authority even when the actions involve harming others, as seen in Milgram’s studies.

Agentic State

A state where people shift responsibility for their actions to an authority figure, resulting in them feeling less responsible themselves.

Lucifer Effect

The transformation of benign individuals into morally corrupt ones due to powerful social situations, a term used in relation to Zimbardo's Stanford Prison Study.

Fundamental Attribution Error (FAE)

The tendency to overestimate personality (dispositional) factors and underestimate situational factors when explaining behavior.

Coercive Power

A power base from French and Raven’s theory involving the use of threats or punishment, such as pay decreases or dismissal, for non-compliance.

Referent Power

Power based on identification with, respect for, or attraction to the powerholder, where charisma is a key element.

Foot-in-the-door

A power tactic where a small request is made first to increase the likelihood of the person accepting a later, larger request.

Reactance

The reaction that occurs when individuals feel their freedom to make choices is threatened, leading them to rebel against authority.

The Dark Triad

A cluster of negative personality traits consisting of Machiavellianism, narcissism, and psychopathy.