Fundamentals of Management, 8th ed

Case Questions

1.

In your experience, have you found that decision-

making groups tend toward groupthink? If so,

what factors contributed to this tendency? If not,

what factors helped to prevent it?

2.

Review the steps in the rational decision-making

model (especially Steps 1–4). This model, of

course, applies to individuals and might be diffi-

cult to apply to group decision-making situa-

tions. If, however, you were a juror, how might

Chapter 4: Managing Decision Making

1 2 3

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you apply these steps to your own deliberations?

How might they give you some useful guidance?

What adjustments would you have to make

because of the context (a trial) and situation (a

group process)?

3.

In what ways might bounded rationality affect a

juror’s approach to a decision? How about satisfi-

cing? Intuition? Ethics?

4.

A recent study found that racially mixed juries

“deliberated longer, raised more facts, and con-

ducted broader and more wide-ranging delibera-

tions” than either all-white or all-black juries.

Why do you think this was so? Do you think

that “mixed” juries are more likely to avoid group-

think than racially homogeneous juries? Explain

your reasoning.

Case References

Twelve Angry Men (United Artists, 1957); David H.

Mitchell and Daniel Eckstein, “Jury Dynamics and

Decision-Making: A Prescription for Group-think,”

International Journal of Academic Research, Vol. 1

(September 2009), www.ijar.lit.az, accessed on May 1,

2012; Irving L. Janis, Groupthink, 2nd ed. (Boston:

Houghton Mifflin, 1972); Michael P. Maslanka, “The

Dirty Realities of Group-Think,” Texas Lawyer,

December 23, 2009, http://texaslawyer.typepad.com,

accessed on May 1, 2012; and Samuel R. Sommers,

“On Racial Diversity and Group Decision Making:

Identifying Multiple Effects of Racial Composition on

Jury Deliberations,” Journal of Personality and Social

Psychology, Vol. 90, No. 4 (2006), http://ase.tufts.edu,

accessed on March 5, 2011.