Groupthink and Quality of Decision-Making Process Among the Top Managers of the Public Universities of Kurdistan Region

Abstract

Groupthink has caused teams of qualified members to make some decisions with catastrophic consequences. Countering groupthink has attracted a lot of research interest. Yet, it is still not established whether teams could fight groupthink with better structures. Approving or disproving this can add to the literature around groupthink and how to avoid it. This quantitative research hypothesized that even teams who have superb quality decision-making processes can fall victims to groupthink. To test this claim, it used questionnaire forms (n=67) to collect primary data from the college committee members of several public sector universities in Kurdistan Region of Iraq. The collected data were then analyzed using Pearson's Correlation, one-way ANOVA and linear regression. The research concluded groupthink symptoms exist among the college committees of the public universities in Kurdistan. It also concluded that the quality of the process with which they make decisions is superb. This brought about the inference that groups and organizations cannot control for with a good quality decision-making process only. The study also concluded that although groupthink symptoms are available regardless of the demographic factors of the team, having team members of qualified academic backgrounds and rich and relevant experiences can contribute to the quality of decision-making process.