• Wilfred Bion
  • Everett Rogers
  • William H. Whyte
  • Carl Iver Hovland
  • Irving Lester Janis
  • Bruce Tuckman   
Wilfred Bion 
(1897-1979)
British psychoanalyst
  • Experiences in Groups
  • Studied group dynamics and mass group processes 
  • Considered how groups adopt an orientation which interferes with the ability to accomplish the work it was nominally engaged in. 
  • The Tavistock Institute further developed his work.
  • Bion, W.R. (1943). Intra-group tensions in therapy, Lancet 2: 678/781 - Nov.27, 1943, in Experiences in Groups (1961).
  • Bion, W. R.(1946). Leaderless group project, Bulletin of the Menninger Clinic, 10: 77-81.
  • Bion, W. R. (1961). Experiences in Groups, London: Tavistock.
William H. Whyte 
(1917 - 1999)
Journalist
Urbanist
Organizational Analyst
  • Coined the term “Groupthink” in 1952 in Fortune magazine:
“ We are not talking about mere instinctive conformity—it is, after all, a perennial failing of mankind. What we are talking about is a rationalized conformity—an open, articulate philosophy which holds that group values are not only expedient but right and good as well.”
Carl Iver Hovland 
(1912 – 1961) 
Psychologist  
Yale University 
US Army during WWII 
  • Attitude change and persuasion
  • The sleeper effect  
  • Studied effects of the Frank Capra propaganda film "Why We Fight" on soldiers  
  • Collaborated with Irving Janis to develop social judgment theory of attitude change. 
  • Pioneering experiments on opinion change   
  • Tested the effects of a one-sided versus a two-sided presentation of a controversial issue. The results contradicted contentions of totalitarian propagandists, who claimed that a communication that presents only one side of the issue will generally be more successful than one that mentions the opposing side of the argument. 
Wartime studies reported in:
  • Experiments on Mass Communication (1949), cowritten by Hovland, A. A. Lumsdaine, and F. D. Sheffield.
  • Hovland, Carl I., Irving L. Janis, and Harold H. Kelley."Communication and Persuation: Psychological Studies of Opinion Change" New Haven: Yale UP, 1953. 
Irving Lester Janis 
(1918 - 1990) 
Research psychologist: 
Yale University 
Professor emeritus UC Berkeley
"Groupthink" 
Advanced study of group dynamics. 
Observed systematic errors made by groups: 
  • The tendency of some groups to try to minimize conflict and reach consensus without sufficiently testing, analyzing, and evaluating their ideas. when making collective decisions.  
  • Showed how pressures for conformity restrict the thinking of the group, bias its analysis, promote simplistic and stereotyped thinking, and stifle individual creative and independent thought. 
Collaborated with Carl Hovland on his studies of attitude change, including the sleeper effect.
  • Janis, Irving (1972). Victims of groupthink; a psychological study of foreign-policy decisions and fiascoes. Boston: Houghton, Mifflin.  
  • Groupthink: Psychological Studies of Policy Decisions and Fiascoes, Decision Making: a Psychological Analysis of Conflict, Choice, and Commitment, and Crucial Decisions: Leadership in Policymaking and Crisis Management. 

Group Dynamics and Decision-Making

Bruce Tuckman
 (Born 1938) 
Tuckman’s five-stage model for ideal group decision-making process:
  • Forming (pretending to get along with others)
  • Storming (letting down the politeness barrier and trying to get down to the issues even if tempers flare up )
  • Norming (getting used to each other and developing trust and productivity)
  • Performing (working in a group to a common goal on a highly efficient and cooperative basis).
  • Adjourning. (mourning the adjournment of the group).  
Model refers to the overall pattern of the group, but of course individuals within a group work in different ways.  
  • Tuckman, Bruce W. (1965) 'Developmental sequence in small groups', Psychological Bulletin, 63, 384-399. 
  • Tuckman, Bruce W. (1984) Developmental sequence in small groups' Current Concerns.
  • Tuckman, Bruce W., & Jensen, Mary Ann C. (1977). 'Stages of small group development revisited', Group and Organizational Studies, 2, 419- 427.