Groupthink

Glossary of HR Terms What is Groupthink

What is Groupthink?

Groupthink is a psychological phenomenon that occurs in teams when the desire for harmony, conformity, or consensus overrides critical thinking and independent judgment. As a result, groups may make flawed decisions because members suppress dissenting views, overlook risks, or fail to consider alternatives.

Why it matters

Groupthink can lead to poor decision-making, strategic missteps, and even ethical failures. In organizations, it stifles innovation and diversity of thought, reducing a team’s ability to identify risks and explore creative solutions. Preventing groupthink is essential for fostering psychological safety, inclusivity, and effective collaboration.

How it affects HR

Groupthink challenges HR to design cultures and systems that encourage diverse perspectives and critical thinking. HR addresses this risk by promoting inclusive hiring, training leaders to facilitate open dialogue, and building psychological safety so employees feel comfortable voicing dissent. By embedding feedback mechanisms and decision-making processes that require multiple viewpoints, HR reduces conformity pressure and improves team problem-solving. Preventing groupthink not only protects decision quality but also strengthens innovation, collaboration, and employee trust in leadership.

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Common use cases/Examples

  • Leadership teams overlooking risks because dissenting opinions are discouraged.
  • Project groups rushing to agreement without fully evaluating alternatives.
  • Teams favoring consensus at the expense of creativity.
  • Employees staying silent during meetings to avoid conflict or exclusion.
  • High-pressure environments amplifying conformity to meet deadlines or expectations.

Examples of companies that face it

  • Enterprises with hierarchical structures, where lower-level employees hesitate to challenge leaders.
  • Startups with strong founder influence, where dissent is implicitly discouraged.
  • Cross-functional teams working under tight deadlines, where speed is prioritized over critical evaluation.

FAQ

Contributing factors include strong pressure for consensus, dominant leadership, lack of diversity, and environments where dissent is discouraged.

It reduces innovation, blinds teams to risks, and can lead to poor or unethical decisions.

By fostering psychological safety, encouraging dissent, appointing “devil’s advocates,” promoting diversity of thought, and creating decision-making processes that require multiple perspectives.

While consensus can sometimes speed up decision-making, groupthink is harmful when it sacrifices quality, creativity, or ethics for the sake of harmony.

HR can train leaders to facilitate inclusive discussions, hire for diversity, and create cultural norms that value constructive disagreement.