Jerry B. Harvey’s 1974 article “The Abilene Paradox: The Management of Agreement” introduced the concept of the “Abilene Paradox” in management.
This occurs when a group decides on a course of action even when it does not align with the opinions and ideas of all members of the group. It occurs as a result of everyone believing their personal viewpoints are drastically different from the vast majority of the group’s opinions. As a result, everyone in the group agrees with something, even if some individuals privately disagree.
Similar to group mentality, the Abilene Paradox typically leaves each individual group member believing that the organization’s corporate judgment was subpar. Successful teams must work to counteract the Abilene Paradox and group thinking in order to maximize group processes.
What causes the Abilene Paradox?
Because people like to follow their social contacts, they have a propensity to think against the group, which leads to the Abilene Paradox. According to Jerry B. Harvey, the team “goes to Abilene” if no one objects to a teammate’s suggested course of action. Some coworkers may disagree with the rationale of the plan, but they choose not to voice their disagreements out of concern for the plan’s future, an innate need to maintain group cohesiveness, or both.
How Can We Prevent the Abilene Paradox?
As the HR manager, you have to be careful that the teams in your workplace don’t fall victim to this comparison. To avoid getting into this situation, you could do the following:
- Encourage each person to take part. Give each participant a certain amount of time to speak freely. None of the managers will feel motivated to speak if they are haughty and do not see the problems at their core.
- Everyone is entitled to their own opinions. Don’t forget to get their opinion.
- Promote interaction and dialogue between the group’s members and the superiors. Otherwise, there is a misunderstanding that keeps the issues from being brought up at the management level, even though there may have been face-to-face conversations about them.
- Try asking for specific criticism if certain employees are still reluctant to voice their opinions in front of others. They might think that this is how their viewpoint is being recognized. This might be useful for those who are truly hesitant to speak in front of others.
- After any action that was decided upon is put into action, get staff input. This will make it simpler to identify any phony group consensus.
- Give them time to consider a scenario’s benefits and drawbacks. Encourage them to use “reasoning skills” and prevent them from making quick decisions.
We can conclude from this that we should avoid going to Abilene and give in to this strange situation. Say “no” more frequently. You don’t have to completely repress or minimize your independent viewpoint in order to collaborate well. If you are the team manager, it is important to know what your group members think.
