Death by groupthink? How today’s corporate culture can harm individuals

In a recent op ed in The New York Times, author Susan Cain argues that “the new groupthink” has consumed our society, taking over workplaces, schools and religious institutions.

It sure looks like a party ... but too much of a group thing could hurt you. (Illustration via The New York Times )

Cain, who has a corporate law and negotiations consultant background, says that this phenomenon is bad for the economy, essentially because, overall, people aren’t as productive in groups as they are alone (I’m oversimplifying here, but it’s not my raison d’écrire – for more detail on our alleged communal demise see the NYT article).

In the meantime … enough about society. What about groupthink’s impact on the individual?

First of all, too much team exposure may make you sick. Studies show that open-plan offices make workers hostile, insecure and distracted. They’re also more likely to suffer from high blood pressure, stress, the flu and exhaustion, the NYT piece says.

But perhaps more importantly (and certainly more ironically), excessive groupthink may make you less able to, well, think.

Groupfink

In a recent article in the Career Advice section of The Globe and Mail, Barbara Moses, and organizational career management consultant, laments the “team player” badge, stating right off the top that she’s tired of people who robotically boast about what great team players they are.

In the throes of groupthink, Moses says many of her clients:

-Routinely shut up about work decisions they don’t agree with;

-Do things that run counter to what they believe is right; and

-Stay quiet because they dread being branded “not a good team player”.

Grouplink

In time, these reactions become habitual – and the employee’s sense of self becomes overly tied into their identity as a team member, Moses explains. And when they lose or leave their groupthink-rich job, she says they often:

-Lose their sense of identity and can become vulnerable to depression;

-Find it challenging to secure new employment – in job interviews, they find it difficult to separate their individual accomplishment and contributions from those of the team; and

-Find it difficult to adjust to work realities that demand more autonomous decision-making, more movement from project to project, and team to team.

One of the hints that someone has been adversely-influenced by groupthink, Moses says, is when a person describes his or her accomplishments as a “we,” as in: “We did such and such …”

Groupshrink

 The psychological and social mechanisms behind groupthink has been well-documented – and debated – over the years.

 One essential feature seems to be that people in groups tend to sit back and let others do the work; they instinctively mimic others’ opinions and lose sight of their own; and, often succumb to peer pressure, Cain writes, citing that Emory University neuroscientist Gregory Berns found that when we take a stance different from the group’s, we activate the amygdala, a small organ in the brain associated with the fear of rejection. Professor Berns calls this “the pain of independence.”

 Cain posits that most humans have two contradictory impulses: we love and need one another, yet we crave privacy and autonomy.

In the age of “the new groupthink”, which should prevail?