Team 10

HUMAN RESOURCES MANAGEMENT CASE STUDY: ABU GHRAIB.

1. Roles of group dynamics, effects of absence of leadership:

Schlesinger and Taguba reports argued that the horrific events occurring in Abu Ghraib had less
to do with group dynamics, but rather the unbelievably bad conditions in the compound.
However, if those conditions lead one person to commit those humanitarian violations, it is very
likely that others were influenced by the group dynamics afterwards. One person or a small
group of people committing a crime without any punishment may have pushed the others to
behave similarly.

2. How does the presence or absence of leadership affect group and team functioning?
Leadership plays a main role in management of teams or groups. Basically, in the case of Abu
Ghraib, where an absence of leadership or very poor leadership can be observed, it leads to
chaos. Military Police members did whatever they felt like doing and there was no one to punish
them and regulate their actions. This behavior ended up in development of many disrespectful
situations, which could have been stopped if they were leaders or proper authorities.

3.

Main structural issues:

a. Absence of leadership: lead to overwhelming disorganization and lack of overseeing

the military police members performing cruel acts.
b. Insufficient numbers of guards: there was barely half of men required on the compound
which resulted in chaotic deployment.
c. Incoordination of Military Police and Military Intelligence: both parties barely knew
their duties which lead to their poor execution.
d. Overwhelming number of detainees: created a mixture of people with different crimes
but same treatment. Also, it became impossible to deal with all of them.

Team 10

4. Impact of context and societal and political climate at the time:

Due to the war between US and Iraq the tension between those two nationalities was already
huge. The fact that the prison was located near the war zone made the situation even worse. The
soldiers were most probably personally involved in torturing the prisoners, because of events like
9/11 they were driven by hate and prejudice towards Muslims. Also, their brutal actions at Abu
Ghraib intensified the hate of Iraqis towards Americans.
5. How training and deployment regimen would work in Abu Ghraib case:
MIs and MPs were never clearly instructed on their roles and purposes, which brought an
overall confusion in the Abu Ghraib personnel. Nobody knew who was in charge and the
situation became even worse when they appointed the MI commander as the person in charge of
the prison and made him also responsible for supporting the MPs. With the proper training and
Military Police guards would have been more disciplined, regulated, overseen, and even forced
to work accordingly and properly to the rules. They should had been instructed on the treatment
for detainees.