Settlement Offers Added Severance to Former Enron Employees
Instructor Discussion Notes
Discussion Notes
1. Answers will vary. You may want to lead a discussion on social decision schemes and the advantages and disadvantages of group decision-making. The creditors as a group may have been influenced by pressures from within the group or from outside the group to agree to the additional employee compensation. The group could have had one or more dominant members who pushed for acceptance of the additional compensation, and some members of the group may simply have agreed to go along with the majority in order to reduce the amount of time the group spent deliberating over the decision.
2. Answers will vary. Because the Z problem-solving model relies on the strengths of all four of the Myers-Briggs “preferences,” it considers each person’s preferences and nonpreferences in the decision-making process. This model would allow the decision-makers involved (Enron Corp. and Enron creditors group) to gather facts and other information, look at other possible solutions, examine each solution and its effect on the overall situation, and then determine how the people involved will be affected. Some of the specific questions listed in the textbook may have come into play in making the decision to pay the additional compensation to workers. For example, “If you were not involved, what would you suggest?” “Is it something you can live with?” and “How do you feel about the action?”
3. Answers will vary. Members in a highly cohesive group like the employees committee generally identify strongly with the group. They have a strong bond and tend to think alike on issues—in this case, on the issue of obtaining additional severance pay from Enron. Groupthink also comes into play when the decision the group is making will have a large impact, as this decision definitely did. And finally, when time is an important factor, as it was in this decision, there is a greater tendency toward groupthink.