Silent minority: argument, information sharing, and polarization of minority opinion through a structuration theory lens

Novelty as a Parameter for Using Arguments in Persuasive Communication

“…In real life, novelty of arguments is only part of information processing. For example, Prahl et al (2017) studied argument novelty in a study on polarization during group discussions and found no effect of novelty of arguments. They suggest that social validation of shared information may be more important than novelty.…”

Top Management Team Political Polarization and Its Implications for Strategic Decision-Making

“…As a result, a large body of research focuses on better understanding how team member diversity influences small team decision-making. Such research is interdisciplinary and comes from fields including communication (e.g., Prahl et al, 2017; Scott et al, 2023; Van Swol & Carlson, 2017), management (e.g., Horwitz & Horwitz, 2007; Martins & Sohn, 2022), psychology (e.g., Van Knippenberg & Mell, 2016; Van Knippenberg et al, 2004), and strategic management (e.g., Carpenter, 2002; Dezsö & Ross, 2012; Miller et al, 2022). While this research has advanced our understanding, important gaps remain.…”

“…Therefore, we need to better understand how deep-level diversity (e.g., abilities, personality, values; Bell & Berry, 2007; Miller et al, 2022) shapes small team decision-making processes. Second, recent research suggests diversity may negatively influence team decision-making (Miller et al, 2022; Prahl et al, 2017; Samba et al, 2018). Thus, we need to better understand how deep-level diversity leads to less desirable team outcomes during the team decision-making process.…”

“…Political ideology is unique from other types of deep-level diversity (e.g., personality types such as introvert vs. extrovert) because it can lead to animosity and, increasingly, perceptions that individuals with differing political ideologies are “stupid” (Hartman et al, 2022). Consequently, political ideologies can create polarization between individuals, which can lead to conflict, discrimination, withholding of opinions, and reduced information sharing (Iyengar & Westwood, 2015; Iyengar et al, 2019; Prahl et al, 2017), all of which are detrimental to team functioning.…”

“…As we discuss below, TMTs are highly salient small teams whose strategic decisions can simultaneously shape institutions, organizations, and individuals, and are influenced by political ideologies (Swigart et al, 2020). Integrating literature examining diversity among strategic leaders within organizations (Hambrick & Mason, 1984; Miller et al, 2022) with the political polarization (Abramowitz & Webster, 2016; Iyengar & Westwood, 2015; Iyengar et al, 2019) and small teams (Prahl et al, 2017) literatures, we introduce the concept of TMT political polarization : the strength of identification and degree of fragmentation within the TMT on policy issues and/or political party identification. We explain how TMT political polarization influences the strategic decision-making process by focusing on two critically important intermediary characteristics: decision comprehensiveness and decision speed (Kauppila et al, 2018; Post et al, 2022; Souitaris & Maestro, 2010).…”