Beyond Groupthink

by Hart, Paul t; Stern, Eric K.; Sundelius, Bengt

• ISBN13: 9780472066537
• ISBN10: 0472066536
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 1997-04-01
• Publisher: Univ of Michigan Pr

Summary

Strategic issues and crises in foreign policy are usually managed by relatively small groups of elite policymakers and their closest advisors. Since the pioneering work of Irving Janis in the early 1970s, we have known that the interplay between the members of these groups can have a profound and, indeed, at times a pernicious influence on the content and quality of foreign policy decisions. Janis argued that "groupthink," a term he used to describe a tendency for extreme concurrence-seeking in decision-making groups, was a major cause of a number of U.S. foreign policy fiascoes. And yet not all small groups suffer from groupthink; in fact many high-level bodies are handicapped by an inability to achieve consensus at all. Beyond Groupthinkbuilds upon and extends Janis's legacy. The contributors develop a richer understanding of group dynamics by drawing on alternate views of small-group dynamics. The relevant literature is reviewed and the different perspectives are explored in detailed case studies. The contributors link the group process to the broader organizational and political context of the policy process and stress the need to develop a multi-level understanding of the collegial policy-making process, combining the insights drawn from micro-level theories with those derived from study of broader political phenomena. The contributors include Alexander George, Sally Riggs Fuller, Paul D. Hoyt, Ramon J. Aldag, Max V. Metselaar, Bertjan Verbeek, J. Thomas Preston, Jean A. Garrison, and Yaacov Y. I. Vertzberger. This book should appeal to political scienctists and international relations specialists, as well as researchers in social psychology, public administration, and management interested in group decision-making processes. Paul 't Hart is Associate Professor, Department of Public Administration, Leiden University and Scientific Director of of the Leiden-Rotterdam Crisis Research Center. Eric Stern is Professor of Political Science at Stockholm University. Bengt Sundelius is Professor of Political Science at Stockholm University.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments
Groupthink and Beyond	p. 1
Foreign Policy-making at the Top: Political Group Dynamics	p. 3
From Groupthink to Contextual Analysis of Policy-making Groups	p. 35
Challenging the Mindguards: Moving Small Group Analysis beyond Groupthink	p. 55
Beyond Decision Making in Formal and Informal Groups: The Dutch Cabinet and the West New Guinea Conflict	p. 95
Understanding Small Group Decisions in Foreign Policy: Process Diagnosis and Research Procedure	p. 123
Political Group Dynamics and Foreign Policy	p. 151
Probing the Plausibility of Newgroup Syndrome: Kennedy and the Bay of Pigs	p. 153
"Following the Leader": The Impact of U.S. Presidential Style upon Advisory Group Dynamics, Structure, and Decision	p. 191
Political Manipulation within the Small Group: Foreign Policy Advisers in the Carter Administration	p. 249
Collective Risk Taking: The Decision-making Group	p. 275
Implications	p. 309
From Analysis to Reform of Policy-making Groups	p. 311
Bibliography	p. 337
Contributors	p. 375
Index	p. 377
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