Question

When it is time for groups to reach a decision, many turn to consensus. Consensus, a situation of agreement, seems like a good idea. To achieve consensus, groups must cooperate and collaborate, which ultimately will produce higher levels of camaraderie and trust. In addition, if everyone agrees, the prevailing wisdom says everyone will be more committed to the decision. However, the need for consensus can sometimes be detrimental to group functioning. Consider the “fiscal cliff” faced by the U.S. government toward the end of 2012. The White House and Congress needed to reach a deal that would reduce the swelling budget deficit. However, many Republicans and Democrats stuck to their party lines, refusing to compromise. Many viewed the end product that achieved consensus as a less-than-optimal solution. The public gave Congress an approval rating of only 13 percent, expressing frustration with the lack of compromise, but the group may not have been able to function well partly because of the need for consensus in the face of partisanship. If consensus is reached, does that mean the decision is the right one? Critics of consensus-based methods argue that any decisions ultimately reached are inferior to decisions using other methods such as voting or having team members provide input to their leader, who then makes the final decision. Critics also argue that because of pressures to conform, groupthink is much more likely, and decisions reached through consensus are simply those everyone dislikes the least.

3 citation for the calamities of consensus citations case

Answer 1

Consensus can lead to several negative fallouts in the process of decision making. Firstly it can tend the group decisions to get dominated. Secondly there is a pressure of conformity and thirdly the entire process is very time consuming. While consensus presents with the advantage of having diversity of views and opinions it can strongly lead to possibility of withdrawal behavior and possibility of social loafing.

Consensus can also lead to group think. Group think is the phenomenon in which the norm for consensus overtakes the systematic and pragmatic appraisal of other courses of actions that are available.

An example of the calamities of consensus can be explained with the help of the example of the space shuttle ‘Challenger’. This space shuttle crashed on January 28^th, 1986 and the decision making process based on consensus was the main reason for the failure of ‘Challenger’. Careful reasoning was completely ignored and the overriding tendency was to favor unanimity.

Citations:

1. Haskell, J. (2007). Understanding Consensus. Retrieved from https://articles.extension.org/pages/70473/understanding-consensus

2. Consensus decision making. Retrieved from https://www.seedsforchange.org.uk/consensus.pdf

3. Chipscholz. (2018). The pros and cons of consensus. Retrieved from https://www.chipscholz.com/2018/03/13/the-pros-and-cons-of-consensus-leadership/