OROMIA STATE UNIVERSITY

Collage of Management and Finance

Change and Innovation Management

Course Code: MAPMC-602

Assignment of Change and Innovation Management

 Oromia State University
COLLEGE OF MANAGEMENT AND FINANCE

Project Management Department

By

Biniyam Atsede

Submitted to: Tarekegn JebessaTesgera [PhD]

Sebeta, Ethiopia
June, 2023
1. Elaborate group thinking and group dynamics
Group thinking is a phenomenon that occurs when a group of individuals reaches a consensus
without critical reasoning or evaluation of the consequences or alternatives. Groupthink is based
on a common desire not to upset the balance of a group of people. This desire creates a dynamic
within a group whereby creativity and individuality tend to be stifled in order to avoid conflict.

Groupthink is a widely utilized theory in social psychology, organizational theory, group

decision-making sciences, and management fields. Groupthink, a term coined by social
psychologist Irving Janis (1972), occurs when a group makes faulty decisions because group
pressures lead to a deterioration of mental efficiency, reality testing, and moral judgment‖.
Groups affected by groupthink ignore alternatives and tend to take irrational actions that
dehumanize other groups.

Groupthink is a psychological phenomenon that occurs within a group of people, in which the
desire for harmony or conformity in the group results in an incorrect or deviant decision-making
outcome. Group members try to minimize conflict and reach a consensus decision
without critical evaluation of alternative ideas or viewpoints, and by isolating themselves
from outside influences.Research into the phenomenon of groupthink is a pertinent area of
study that involves understanding how group processes influence the making of decisions. This
includes the analysis of the conditions under which miscalculations; faulty information
processing, inadequate surveys of alternatives, and other potentially avoided errors are most
probable.

The social process by which people interact and behave in a group environment is called group
dynamics. Group dynamics involves the influence of personality, power, and behaviour on the
group process. There are two types of groups:

 formal groups who are structured to pursue a specific task, and

 informal groups who emerge naturally in response to organizational or member
interests.
These interests may include anything from a research group charged with the responsibility to
develop a new product to a group of workers who spontaneously come together to improve
social or member activities. While we can learn a lot from informal groups in terms of leadership
and motivation, we will concentrate mostly on formal groups, characterized by member
appointment and delegated authority and responsibility.
2. Discuss the idea of Carl mark theory of alienation from the point of change
management.
Critical Change management scholars have drawn from classical sociology to analyses
workplace phenomena. Many have found inspiration in the economic, political and social
theories of Marx (Adler, Forbes and Wilmot 2007).

One of Marx’s central theories pertains to alienation. According to Marx, alienation stems from
the economic infrastructure of society. Under capitalism, workers create products by investing
their own labour with natural resources to create something new that has economic value. In this
way, labour becomes objectified; it’s worth is transformed into a commodity that can be bought
and sold on the market. The root of alienation, then, is that a person’s labour is disconnected
from him or herself.

Marxist theory suggests that changes in modes of production can lead to changes in class
systems. That can prompt other new forms of change or incite class conflict. A different view is
conflict theory, which operates on a broad base that includes all institutions. Marx believed that
the class struggle was the driving force of social change. Marx believed that “the character of
social and culture forms is influenced by the mode economic base of society specifically by the
relationships that exist between those who own and those who do not own the means of
production.

3. Discuss the very concept of Darwinism from the viewpoint of political and
economic change.
Evolutionary Economics is a rapidly expanding field of research that develops and applies a
multitude of theoretical tools and empirical methods to explain processes of technological,
organizational, institutional and commercial change.

Given its far-ranging implications for the role of Darwinian thought in reshaping economics, for
the way “evolution” is conceptualized in the cultural arena, and for the specification of the
essentials of Evolutionary Economics proper, it is not surprising that this new, more ambitious
proposition.
Their focus is on human creativity, imagination, intentionality and the specific human capacity to
learn. These are of course also essential aspects in any discussion on the possibility and
desirability of economic policy-making. This refers to attempts, supported by collective action,
to solve problems of societal interaction by deliberately shaping the institutional framework
underlying economic evolution. Since economic evolution may not only generate desirable
outcomes, but also “spontaneous disorder” in the eyes of the individuals affected (Buchanan,
1977), there is a need for (ideally procedural) welfare considerations.

In such an evolving setting, three questions have to be examined:

 How do the participants in the political arena (policy-makers and voters) learn about new
political problem solutions over time?
 Is there a need to worry about the purposeful design of new political problem solutions
(i.e. new rules of the market game) at all?
 How do we find out what “welfare” means in an evolving economy?