Essay on Relationship Between Group Thinking, Decision-making and Cultural Fit

Group thinking is a social psychological term that refers to a phenomenon where people actively desire conformity not to disrupt harmony within a group. In this way, individuals suppress their personal thinking and believe to avoid conflict and adopt the suggestions from the group. Persons opposed to the group's opinion often keep quiet rather than disputing the crowd's uniformity (Dennis, 1993).

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Group decision making is the direct result of group thinking in which individuals in a group participate to collectively analyze situations and evaluate the most appropriate solution for the issue. Decisions made in this group are frequently democratic, meaning the decision made may not have the consensus of all the individuals. So long as the majority are of one opinion, then the decision is made regardless of the few who oppose. In many organizations decisions are made after a group decision-making process, this is not to be confused with team decision making as a team works collectively in unison to achieve a particular goal (Dennis, 1993).

In many organizations where group decision making is required, it becomes apparent of the need for employees to work together so as to be useful in solution making and paving the way forward. Cultural fit now comes into the picture. Cultural fit is the process in which an organization scrutinizes potential employees according to criteria that best suit their philosophy. The candidates are sorted out based on their ability to conform or adapt the values and behaviors of that particular organization (John, 1996).

The most fundamental task for a human resource manager in an organization such as Toyota is their ability to recruit and select the most appropriate workforce. Through this, the department can generate an efficient organization within the company. In this way, Cultural fit assists the HR manager to employ the right personnel for Toyota. At Toyota, the strategic goal is to generate an innovative business model so as to make quick decisions, strong revenues, new ideas and building effective products to be sold (Liker, 2008).

Various organizational behavior models are applied in conjunction with the cultural fit model so as to achieve in selecting the most viable candidates. The competency model acts as a complement to cultural fit as candidates who have similar working styles with the current workers at Toyota are further filtered using all relevant knowledge skill and behaviors as required by the company. The process not only describes the quality requirements of a worker in a particular position but also gives the new employee job roles and how to conduct them effectively (Le Deist, 2005).

The strength and weakness model is used to categorize the new workforce. The categories depend entirely on where their ability is of value within the company. The company measures the suitability of an employee to hold one position as opposed to another by comparing their strengths and weaknesses gained through an interview or a questionnaire (Bessant, 2013).

It is, therefore, easier to recommend the use of as many organizational behavior models as possible so as isolate the perfect employees. These models may vary depending on the region the company is planning to establish itself. Models have a tendency to complement each other if applied correctly. For example, if the strength and weakness model came as the first criteria then a company will have the most qualified and experienced personnel available, but the candidates will not assimilate properly hence creating a lot of problems in the day to day operation of the company.

Reference

Dennis, A. R. (1993, August). INFORMATION PROCESSING IN GROUP DECISION MAKING: YOU CAN LEAD A GROUP TO INFORMATION, BUT YOU CAN'T MAKE IT THINK. In Academy of Management Proceedings (Vol. 1993, No. 1, pp. 283-287). Academy of Management.

John, A., Patteson, F., Silvester, J., Cooper, C., Randall, R., & Robertson, I. (1996). Work Psychology: Understanding Human Behaviour at Workplace.

Liker, J. K., & Hoseus, M. (2008). Toyota culture. New York, McGrawHill.

Bessant, J. (2013). Innovation in the twenty-first century. Responsible innovation. Managing the responsible emergence of science and innovation in society, 1-26.

Le Deist, F. D., & Winterton, J. (2005). What is competence?. Human resource development international, 8(1), 27-46.