Assignment

Take a look and study chapter 13 about "conformity." In no more than 3 double-spaced pages:

define conformity
why and where does it exist
what is its value
what are the pluses and minuses of conformity
give an example of conformity in "your world"
tell, describe, explain if "social" media depends on conformity or not.

No recommendations needed. Don't just copy from the book, show me you understand and are thinking or have thought about conformity and its role in business, management and life in general. Be sure to sectionalize your document based on the questions above. Paginate the document.

Chapter 13

Conformity and Agreement

One common problem many teams face is dealing with the related issues of conformity and agreement. In the context of a group, conformity means adherence to the group's norms, values, and goals. While member acceptance of pivotal norms is important for both individual and group success, too much conformity-especially to the point of blind adherence even to all peripheral norms-can result in reduced creativity and objectivity in addressing issues and solving problems. For example, in a set of experiments in which subjects were asked to judge whether three lines were equal or different in length, many individuals conformed to the consensus of a group, judging lines that were obviously different in length to be the same just because the rest of the group said they were.45 This kind of conformity, when applied to work situations, can detract from the generation of new ideas and from a group member's tendency to disagree with inappropriate behaviors that the group might be demonstrating. This phenomenon occurred at Countrywide Financial when loan officers started granting so-called "liar loans" to borrowers who were encouraged to falsify application documents in order to secure a larger loan than they would otherwise be eligible for conformity: Adherence to the group's norms, values, and goals.

Experts have identified two special cases of group conformity. We defined the concept of groupthink in Chapter 7 as a condition in which poor decision making occurs because the desire to maintain group cohesiveness precludes the critical evaluation of alternative courses of action.46 For example, to avoid "rocking the boat" or upsetting the positive shared feelings of group solidarity, members may withhold information or opinions that would go against an apparent group consensus. The result is that decisions are made and implemented without considering all possible alternatives, or the alternatives offered are given less than full examination.

Irving Janis, who coined the term groupthink, identified eight symptoms of the phenomenon:

1. Illusion of invulnerability-members become convinced that they are invincible, and their overconfidence results in a willingness to take great risks.

2. Illusion of morality-members believe that whatever they do is good, ethical, and morally correct, when in fact, it may not be.

3. Illusion of unanimity-members falsely believe they are all in agreement.

4. Collective rationalization-members justify any concerns about the value of what they are doing or challenges to their decisions.

5. Mind guarding-some members protect the group by preventing adverse information from being presented.

6. Shared stereotypes-members negatively stereotype outsiders who may present a threat to the group and its decisions.

7. Self-censorship-members consider disagreement with the group inappropriate, so they don't speak out.

8. Direct pressure-members who voice objections to the apparent group consensus are pressured by other members to conform.

These groupthink symptoms can be prevented through specific techniques, including assigning the role of critical evaluation to everyone in the group, appointing a specific individual to be a "devil's advocate" to challenge the group consensus, breaking the group into smaller subgroups to discuss issues, having the leader withhold his or her opinion about the issue, and bringing in outside experts to challenge the group's thinking. Within the broader organization, ways to preclude groupthink include establishing an organizational culture that encourages original thinking and challenges, training leaders, and conducting organizational development activities such as team building and creative problem solving. Most firms are developing ethics programs to encourage appropriate conduct and systems for reporting of misconduct. It is important that leaders establish cohesive groups with norms that encourage rather than discourage critical evaluation of ideas within the context of appropriate conduct.One common problem many teams face is dealing with the related issues of conformity and agreement.