Business Communication and Organizational Culture

Question: Discuss about the Business Communication and Organizational Culture. Answer: Introduction The concept of the groupthink is first coined by a research psychologist Irving Janis in the tear 1972 (Bell 2016). Lee et al. (2016) explain the concept of group thinking that it occurs when overconfidence leads the common sense and problem-solving abilities. Moreover, in business, it can be explained from a scenario where a group makes faulty or ineffective decisions and it has to be supported by all the team members even though some of them think that it is not correct (Bell 2016). The primary objective of this business report is to highlight some examples of groupthink and their associated potential reason for its operational failure. Traits of Group-thinkers Some of the traits that a group possess and can be considered to be the main cause of the occurrence of the group thinks are illustrated below: In the context of an isolated group, if a group of people that only considered their group or community to be the main and do not consider the presence of other communities and individuals from other ethnic backgrounds; they can be group-thinkers. Cherry (2015) portrays that in this case, the isolated group only reinforces their moral superiority and hate another group. In the context of professional organizations, if all the members of the company manufacture products that is quickly becoming outdated and denies adopting new alternatives for the betterment of the organization; they can also be considered as group-thinkers (Janis 2015). Moreover, in common people also this insolence of group-thinking can be seen regarding politics. People follow one political idealand stop watching working approach of other political groups, which leads to hate and distrust people who disagree with them (Janis 2015). Example of groupthink In this section, some of the major examples of group thinking will be illustrated: One of the famous examples of group-thinking is that of Swissair. Brinkmann and (2014) explained that this airlines services provider once was financially so fortunate that they are known as "Flying Bank." The managing authorities also thought that they were invulnerable. This lead to a state of arrogance and delusional self-belief, and as a result, they also become a "mutual appreciation society." Consequently, they also started formulating new strategies like "Hunger strategy," where they develop acquisition of small airlines rather than entering into alliance agreements (Sims and Sauser 2013). This lead to the extreme failure of the concerned organization and the company was fully collapsed in 2001. In recent times, some people believe the thought of Maurice Newman can be considered as an example of group-thinking. The concerned person stated argued that the concept of the climate change is vague and there is a little reality in the concept. The news article of "The Weekend Australia," reported that, when a majority of 97% of the scientists agrees that climate change is an urgent human-made problem, then it is questionable how a non-scientist can challenge that climate change is unreal (Theaustralian.com.au 2016). Moreover, Rhodes (2013) highlights on another side of the coin by stating that scientists also reveals their opinion and to the scientific facts how much global warming is curbed by taking green initiatives throughout these years. Thus, this conflicts results in an unquestionable war among the politicians and scientists of climate science rather than taking effective steps for protecting planet earth. Another example of group-thinking in the corporate world is about Marks Spencer and British Airways." Riordan and Riordan (2013) highlighted that both these companies develop over-confidence of their profitability and released globalization expansion strategies and overlook its respective potential failure. The prime reason for this is that both these companies had an illusion of their invulnerability. Riordan and Riordan (2013) also depict that analysis of Jack Eaton's content reveals that during their adoption of globalization strategies, all eight symptoms of groupthink were there and resulted in an immense loss for both of the companies. The shares of Marks Spencer fell from 590 to less than 300 and the shares of British Airways fall from 740 to 300 (Riordan and Riordan 2013). Identification of potential reasons for its operational failure Cherry (2015) suggested some of the reason for the failure of the concept of Group-thinking: Collective rationalization is a case, where a group ignores warning from their higher authorities or oppositions and they continue to proceed on their approaches (Petrakis and Konstantakopoulou 2015). Bell (2016) mentioned that illusions of invulnerability are the major reason for the failure of business decisions in the corporate world. Petrakis and Konstantakopoulou (2015) on the other hand emphasized on a stereotyped view of the others, where an individual stops to understand the ethical concerns of others and underestimate the potential of others in contributing effective suggestions. In the case of Swissair Airlines, the decision for acquisitions of small airlines rather than collaborations with the leading airline's services was the potential reason for the collapse of the concerned organization. The reason for investing in these small airlines services is to get a foothold in the EU market to attain a membership of the EU that is rejected by EU resulting in a huge loss for Swissair Airlines (Louie 2013). Moreover, in the case of calling the effect of the greenhouse as a delusion, it can be said that Maurice Newman takes advantage of the designation, chairperson of the Australian Broadcasting Corporation and expounded private views on climate change (Taylor 2016). The lack of meeting with government personnel and communication with the general communal, the action of the concerned person leads to the conflict between scientists and the government of Australia. Lastly, the illusion of invulnerability was the wrong move in collapsing of Marks Spencer and British Airways. Louie (2013) states that businessperson has to consider the recent demand of the market and the political stability along with a pre-mortem business-analysis before taking any business decision. However, both of these organizations only consider their business growth throughout the past years. This was the potential wrong move that results in their failures of activities. Conclusion Thus, it can be concluded that Illusions of Invulnerability, Stereotyped View of Others, Collective Rationalization and Mind Guards can be considered as symptoms of the group-thinking. This result in business failures as a group only considers their view, opinion, strengths and business stability and overlooks the negative consequences that can occur in future. Thus, every organization and individual have to analyze the environment in the surrounding the future opportunity for correct investments and taking an effective business decision. Reference List Bell, R.M., 2016, January. FIRST CENTURY GROUPTHINK: AN EXEGETICAL CASE STUDY. In Allied Academies International Conference. Academy of Organizational Culture, Communications and Conflict. Proceedings (Vol. 21, No. 1, p. 6). 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