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Groupthink’ Was Forgotten and Why It Matters

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Groupthink’ Was Forgotten and Why It Matters WILLIAM H. WHYTE JR.: HOW THE CREATOR OF ‘GROUPTHINK’ WAS FORGOTTEN AND WHY IT MATTERS By Oliver Pol A thesis submitted to the Victoria University of Wellington in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Commerce in Management Victoria University of Wellington 2020 1 Abstract This thesis examines the presentation of management theories in textbooks, focusing on groupthink as an indicative case. The groupthink theory warns that positive consensus leads to the exclusion of other ideas, with potentially disastrous results. It is credited to the psychologist Irving Janis, but William H. Whyte Jr. used the phrase groupthink in 1952, nineteen years before Janis’ first usage. I ask how this happened - why do most textbooks credit Janis if he did not create the term? To answer this, the study takes a critical view of management’s dissemination of knowledge. A critical study acknowledges that all knowledge is subjective, and no interpretation can precisely represent the past. The primary method was the collection historical data primarily composed of textbooks, academic studies, and journal articles. This data represents the primary work of Whyte and Janis regarding groupthink, and their representation elsewhere. This allows for the construction of a ‘counter-history’ to the accepted version of history where Janis is groupthink’s creator. My findings demonstrate a clear shift within management history, discovering early evidence of Whyte’s groupthink being embraced by prominent writers, followed by a gradual marginalisation of Whyte’s contribution. This was due in part to Janis’ sudden popularity but it is evident that management studies deliberately moved away from questions of conformity asked by Whyte and peers in the 1950s. I also found that Whyte himself moved away from the groupthink terminology, rebadging the same concept as ‘the organization man’. These findings contribute a new case study to the field of management literature calling for the importance of directly embracing history. It also makes a case for textbooks as a study’s primary form of data. Future research can further explore the extent of the continued relevance of William H. Whyte’s ideas in a modern context. 2 Acknowledgements Writing this thesis has been a massively solitary experience, and therefore I feel strong gratitude to essentially every human with whom I have had contact during the postgraduate experience. Naming all these people would apparently take too long, however? So: Friends! Alisdair and Jamie for general excellence and dedication to questionable cinematic experiences. Also all theatre-people: acting and devising and all that jazz (though minimal literal jazz was involved) has kept my positive vibes broadly intact over the last few years – special thanks to Tim, Emma and Lily. Family! Harriet and Charlotte for being siblings, and Ron and Alison for being parents. And yeah, all the support (general). Big respect is also due to all the other bits of the family tree: the living ones for being good people, and the ancestors for contributing to my existence. Existing has been very important for writing this. Thanks to Stephen Cummings for the contribution on the AOM conference paper, and massive thanks to Todd Bridgman for wonderfully supportive supervision on the thesis, but also for the last couple of years of MGMT202 tutoring: being employed was superb for continuing to pay rent, and the inspirational mentorship was a very nice bonus. 3 Table of Contents Abstract ................................................................................................................................................... 2 Acknowledgements ................................................................................................................................. 3 CHAPTER 1 - Introduction ....................................................................................................................... 6 Irving Janis’ Groupthink ................................................................................................................. 8 CHAPTER 2 – Literature Review: Making History .................................................................................. 11 Defining a critical stance ................................................................................................................ 11 Historical deconstruction and reflexivity ...................................................................................... 13 Why the historic turn is valuable................................................................................................... 14 Relevance to management education ............................................................................................ 17 The role of textbooks in limiting historical engagement .............................................................. 18 My groupthink narrative ............................................................................................................... 20 CHAPTER 3 – Methodology: How to Deconstruct History .................................................................... 21 A Foucauldian approach ................................................................................................................ 21 Viewing management history differently ...................................................................................... 22 Textbook analysis ............................................................................................................................ 23 The value of textbook study ........................................................................................................... 24 Data collection: Constructing the corpus ...................................................................................... 25 Using individual textbooks to indicate trends .............................................................................. 26 Representing data: Generalisations and representations ............................................................ 27 CHAPTER 4 – Groupthink Counter-History: William H. Whyte, Jr. ........................................................ 29 Whyte’s early career and groupthink ........................................................................................... 29 Reception to groupthink and Is Anybody Listening? .................................................................. 32 The organisation man ..................................................................................................................... 33 Whyte in context: Management studies in the 1950s ................................................................... 35 Responses to Whyte beyond the 1950s .......................................................................................... 37 Changing textbooks: From Whyte to Janis .................................................................................. 40 Whyte, out: A change of career ..................................................................................................... 42 Death of an organisation man ........................................................................................................ 45 CHAPTER 5 – Strengths and Limitations of Janis’ Groupthink .............................................................. 49 Janis’ groupthink provides a simple diagnostic framework for managers ............................... 49 Janis’ groupthink appeals to textbooks written to train managers ............................................ 50 Janis’ groupthink reinforces the value of group dynamics ......................................................... 51 Janis’ groupthink relates to well-known cases ............................................................................. 52 4 Janis’ limitations: Minimal progression from initial foreign policy case studies ...................... 53 Janis’ limitations: Minimal evidence ............................................................................................. 54 Conclusion: Groupthink beyond Janis ......................................................................................... 56 CHAPTER 6 – Discussion ........................................................................................................................ 58 Recognising Whyte .......................................................................................................................... 58 This woman’s work: The rigour behind Whyte ........................................................................... 59 Conformity: Comparing Whyte and Janis’ arguments ............................................................... 59 Whyte now: Does he have a place in the 21st century? ................................................................ 60 Where does this leave Irving Janis? .............................................................................................. 62 Contributions: A new example for critical studies....................................................................... 63 Contributions: Textbook analysis.................................................................................................. 64 Contributions: A reorientation of textbooks to promote open conversations ........................... 65 Contributions: Embracing history meaningfully ......................................................................... 66 Conclusion: The value of teaching Whyte’s ideas .......................................................................
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