Dec. 18 Discussion

Book: Hammond, Jerry B. Harvey. The Abilene Paradox and Other Meditations on Management. 1996.

Preliminaries: We were a smaller group of five for this discussion, as a number of people had conflicts with the upcoming holidays. Marshall led our discussion, which could have continued into the evening once we got going. We ate holiday cookies as we discussed the book.

Book Discussion: Although the group touched upon the essays, “Eichmann in the Organization” and “Encouraging Managers to Cheat,” most of the discussion centered on the essay “The Abilene Paradox: The Management of Agreement.” Almost everyone had a story related to the trip to Abilene, and one group member who wasn’t able to attend even sent word that this was one of her/his main workplace issues.

One group member shared a story about faculty layoffs at the small college where she once worked, and how the college’s head of finance manipulated the Abilene Paradox to build supposed consensus around the layoffs. She also noted that library schools sometimes have to deal with this. Another group member talked about the prevalence of the paradox in certain cultural groups, where many important issues are overlooked, ignoring that “the emperor has no clothes.” In addition to the “Emperor has no clothes,” another group member mentioned the play “Doubt” as a story that deals with the potential of people to act contrary to what they know.

Group members agreed that some reasons for a trip to Abilene include group think, top down dictates, plain old politeness and even organizational structure. One person asked: “How do we get people to try things they don’t usually want to try?” Possible ways to address the issue include being objective, and approaching the issue without making personal. Discussants agreed that some things are worth advocating for, while sometimes the appropriate response is to let go . . . and go to Abilene.

Something to Think About:
Harvey says that the road to Abilene often begins with “mismanaged
agreement” rather than “coercive organizational pressures to conform.”
Ina library setting, what is the difference between the two? Do
managers sometimes intentionally manage in a way that avoids agreement