Need a response to the two Discussion Post
In responding to your peers,
1. Comment on whether you believe the concept of groupthink may have played a part in the downfall of WorldCom, especially as it pertains to its board.
2. How you would overcome the communication barriers and groupthink to ensure organizational success?
A. Two barriers that I feel were prominent within WorldComs effective communications were Filtering and Selective Perception.
First is Selective Perception. What I found the article was stating is that Ebbers was working on the foundation of his past experiences. Ebbers, who took the stand in his own defense, insisted that he knew nothing of WorldCom’s shady accounting and that he left much of the minutiae of running the company to underlings (Crawford, 2005). As a CEO I feel that he was sifting information to suit his own needs. If you are in the head of an organization, and your name is on the line then you have to be abreast of what is going on at almost every level. You cannot play ignorant to what is going on when you are the tip of the spear. As a CEO it is also your job to ensure you have the right and capable individuals sitting in the most dynamic positions to ensure your company has the insurance of doing things to promote hat the moral, ethics, and vision for what that company stands for.
Second, I found would be Filtering. With a definition of filtering being the misrepresentation or the withholding of information to manage one persons reactions, Ebbers was indicated for organizing the fraud at WorldCom decreasing spending on its service and equipment. As the article states, withholding disclosed accounting indiscretions that, in the article ended up leading Ebbers’ prosecution (Crawford, 2005). The admittance of WorldCom’s hazy calculations is a result of that. With that in the article it is stated that the prosecutors declare that Ebbers authorized the accounting fraud because he wanted to safeguard his private wealth, which contained predominantly of WorldCom stock.
B. The two barriers to effective communication that were most prominent within World Com are filtering and selective perception. Bernard Ebbers had an agenda that was unethical and felt once he resigned and left the company he was in the clear. He had borrowed against the company and invested in the company stock expecting to see a great financial return. His desperation stemmed from the cut in telecom spending. I am sure this was when most consumers were getting rid of their landline phones and replacing them with a cell phone. To push this agenda, he had to involve others who assisted him with the filtering of information and the fuzzy math to make this work. As the CEO the selective perception was used when he encountered those who questioned his agenda. To minimize his lack of integrity, he used selective perception. People who use selective perception tend to rationalize and justify their wrongdoings to avoid guilt and shame.
