Letterman or Leno: a groupthink analysis of successive decisions made by the National Broadcasting Company (NBC)

Abstract

Utilizes the groupthink framework to analyse successive decisions made by the same group of senior executives of the National Broadcasting Company (NBC). These decisions related to NBC’s flagship late‐night television show, The Tonight Show. Based on this analysis, presents an enhanced groupthink framework that attempts to highlight why defective decision making occurred in one decision‐making situation but not in another consecutive decision. Concludes that the answer lies in the presence of group isolation from qualifed experts and the specific leaders’ behaviours of stating a preferred decision choice and not encouraging member opinions.

Citation

Neck, C.P. (1996), "Letterman or Leno: a groupthink analysis of successive decisions made by the National Broadcasting Company (NBC)", Journal of Managerial Psychology, Vol. 11 No. 8, pp. 3-17. https://doi.org/10.1108/02683949610150024