Margaret Stover Case Study: Groupthink

Introduction

This case involves employees of the Youth Service Network (YSN) , which is a mid-sized nonsectarian, not-for-profit organization. This organization provides young people ages 6-24 with camping, educational, social, recreational, and cultural programs in a major northeastern metropolitan area. YSN was founded in 1935 by Trevor Clinton, who envisioned an organization that would use recreation as an incentive for engaging boys in positive activities to help prevent juvenile delinquency. Sal de Marco, who was once the chair of the search committee is now the board president of YSN. In 1992 Marco headed the search committee that selected Margaret Stover as the executive director of YSN. Margaret has extensive experience as a nonprofit executive.
Problem statement

Stepping into an organization that has been rudderless for some time, Margaret has decided that it was times to get to the root cause of YSN's problem and to develop a
Members of the board are 50 year old Caucasian males. According to Murphy (2015), homogeneity is linked to the concept of "groupthink." Groupthink refers to "the mode of thinking that persons engage in when concurrence-seeking becomes so dominant in a cohesive in-group that it tends to override realistic appraisal of the alternative course of action" (Howard, 2011). This issue is evident in this case being that members of the board are not willing to invest in the changing nature and needs of the community must less consider them. Current campers are now suffering with emotional and psychological issues but because the board does not seem to understand these major changes, are unwilling to invest to upgrade the camping program. This issue goes against the organizations mission which is to improve the further well-being and happiness of the boys and girls, helping them to develop a sense of self-worth, values, and