Negative Group Roles and How I Dealt

¶ … negative group roles and how I dealt with the negative group member My very first encounter with negative group roles was when I was seventeen years old and while working part-time at a local electronics store. At the electronics store, we were divided into various groups that were headed by different group leaders. Our salary was based on a basic pay as well as commission. This means that our earnings depended much on our push for more sales.

The sales force of every individual was highly dependent on the amount of group cohesion and strategy which we put in place in attracting more clients to our stand as well as to our groups. In regard to the sales and promotion functions, we were allowed to engage potential clients via email, phone calls and direct conversations. This means that we had to work together in ensuring that our sales and marketing strategy was the best.

One of our group members by the name of Jack was counterproductive and exuded negative group roles. He would always complain that the group was not being rewarded well for its efforts and he always urged us to boycott our duties. He was also not happy with the fact that our group was headed by a female, Amanda. He believed that women generally could not be leaders and therefore Amanda should step down for a real leader who in is opinion is a male employee.

Jack was discriminatory, cruel and unjust in most of his engagements in our group. His attitude and behavior weighed down on our group performance as he decided to openly undermine the authority of Amanda as well as of the remuneration policy that was set up by the company. His role in the company was very negative since objected the group leadership while also stirring a rebellion within the group.

The negative consequences of group think Group think is defined by Janis (1989,1982) as the extreme level of concurrence that is sought that a certain group adopts while making its decisions. Group think is noted by Turner et al. (1992) as likely to occur in cases when a group experiences various antecedents conditions like high cohesion, limited methodological inquiry, insulation from various experts, high stress, low-self-esteem, directive leadership as well as high stress levels.

There is also little hope of reaching a better solution than the ones that are preferred by the leader. The conditions that lead to group think are collective rationalization, stereotyping, self-censorship among others. Recent examples of group think on the global or national arena are the recent financial crisis which affected the financial industry in entirety when the industry exhibited a kind of a herd/group behavior with the ABSs and CDOs.

Several organizations like AIG and Lehman demonstrated group think and then subsequently found themselves in great financial trouble (bankruptcy).The rating agency too demonstrated groupthink since they also wanted to gain. The invasion of Iraq was also based on group think since the war was based on the plan to disarm the country of WMDs. The MWDs were never found and the real reason behind the war remains unknown to the general public.

Credibility and Cultivating a "You Attitude" As the Vice President of Marketing for a cosmetic firm that has stopped making products that use animal testing, I intend to explain how the company's credibility and the "you attitude" would play a part in your planned communication to my customers. As credible company that has attained the ISO 9002 quality assurance standard. Our company is consumer-centric and we therefore tailor our products and processes according to your needs.

As noted by Rodman (2001) the process of cultivating the "You Attitude" is integral to the company's success and customer satisfaction. Effective vs. Ineffective Language An article appeared on the New York Times online edition on the 22nd of September, 2011 that discussed the euphemism for marginalization (Smith,2011). The paper by Terry Smith successfully discussed the concept of poor racial relations and marginalization in contemporary America. The article is successful in employing and explaining euphemism in detail in regard to tough retail relations.