Organizational Behavior Quiz Question Set #6: Group Dynamics

Vocabulary flashcards covering core terms, studies, and concepts from Organizational Behavior Quiz Question Set #6 on Group Dynamics.

Gawande (2009)

The researcher cited for two studies illustrating two key problems in surgery teams, referenced alongside a slide addressing the most common obstacle to effective teams.

Groupthink

A group decision-making phenomenon with four proposed causal conditions (one strongly supported by research and one found not to matter), subject to various prevention techniques and practices.

Japanese Practice (Groupthink)

A culturally specific workplace practice discussed in class as a tool to help overcome one of the proposed conditions that causes groupthink.

Alfred Sloan's Insight

A famous quote and perspective from Alfred Sloan illustrating a specific, brilliant approach to avoiding groupthink in decision-making bodies.

Gary Klein

A psychologist and decision-making expert who introduced the concept and procedure of a "premortum" to help groups avoid groupthink.

Premortum

A detailed group decision-making technique developed by Gary Klein designed to identify potential failures in advance, whose primary virtue is helping avoid groupthink.

Barry & Stewart (1997)

Researchers cited for identifying "four aspects of group process," three of which overlap with broader dimensions of team member effectiveness.

Five Aspects of Team Member Effectiveness

A framework listing five team effectiveness dimensions, containing three aspects shared with Barry & Stewart (1997) and two distinctly different aspects.

Sampling Advantage

A concept used to critique the belief that groups inherently benefit from having a greater diversity of information.

Social Loafing

A group dynamics phenomenon analyzed in connection with free riding and evaluated in terms of whether it represents process gains or process losses.

Free Riding

A group dynamics concept discussed alongside social loafing that relates directly to group process gains or process losses.

Group Polarization

A group hazard or problem wherein discussion leads to extreme shifts, illustrated by an experiment discussed from the book Noise.

Noise (Book)

The book containing an experiment discussed in class illustrating group polarization, which documented a specific behavior exhibited by 27% of its juries.

Ringelmann Effect

A phenomenon discovered in Ringelmann's original study and discussed in a handout alongside the beneficial properties of five-person and seven-person groups.