There's a book called Groupthink that was written to explain how the Johnson administration got caught in a bell jar about Vietnam. I haven't seen it cited, but I haven't focused on this thread. jks  "Brian O. Sheppard" <bsheppard@bari.iww.org> wrote: <BLOCKQUOTE style="PADDING-LEFT: 5px; MARGIN-LEFT: 5px; BORDER-LEFT: #1010ff 2px solid"> Thanks. The phenomenon I'm trying to get at is this one described in an interview with Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez: "[H]ere a large topic is unveiled: how does a leader of the country obtain objective information of what is going on in his country? On one side, it often happens that the people around him, in order to please him, to save him worries or because of opportunism, avoid informing him of the problems by giving him rosy information.... Is there any mechanism to avoid what Eduardo Galeano in a conversation named as the echo problem: the leader and his echo? Or as Matus says: 'The leader and his bell jar.'" ( http://zmag.org/content/showarticle.cfm?SectionID=45&ItemID=2842 "Lessons of the April Coup: Harnecker interviews Chavez," by Marta Harnecker and Hugo Chavez,January 09, 2003 ) Since the social sciences are inex act, I'd expect different different disciplines to address it in some way. But it does seem to speak about social power relations, which are studied by sociologists. I'm looking for an exact term for this phenomenon, like "Peter Principle" or "Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis." So far, no luck. And, yes, I've been referred to Janis' "groupthink" studies by a number of people. Thanks for everyone's input, at least I have more places to look, now. Brian On Wed, 5 Feb 2003, Wojtek Sokolowski wrote: > I think "groupthink" in org theory refers more to ex post > rationalization than sycophancy. The argument goes like that: under > condition of uncertainty people tend to fall back on old, tried, or -- "At times one remains faithful to a cause only because its opponents do not cease to be insipid." - Friedrich Nietzsche "Il etait enfin venu, le jour ou je fus un pourceau!" - Comte de Lautreamont, Les Chan ts de Maldoror, 4th Hymn, Strophe 6 </BLOCKQUOTE> <hr! size=1>Do you Yahoo!? <a href="http://rd.yahoo.com/mail/mailsig/*http://mailplus.yahoo.com">Yahoo! Mail Plus</a> - Powerful. Affordable. <a href="http://rd.yahoo.com/mail/mailsig/*http://mailplus.yahoo.com">Sign up now</a>