In your opinion, is the alternative voted “best” by the class a “better” solution

than anything you thought of on your own? Explain your answer

Today, many important solutions and decisions are discussed and made by groups
rather than by individuals. In the 4.0 era, team decision - making has become the
most widely applied problem - solving method and in important situations. That's
because group decision - making has distinct advantages over the individual
decision - making or other decision - making methods.
First, the ideas and decisions discussed and made by a group tend to be the most
effective and potentially the most successful. Like the saying "Two heads are better
than one", the advantage of group decision - making is the diversity of opinions and
information. Each member of the team has a different level of knowledge and
experience. This collective information set will help save time searching for
information for the group. Furthermore, the team can look at the problem from
multiple perspectives and through different lenses. These prisms cover not only the
breadth but also the depth of the matter. Therefore, the final solution drawn from
those different experiences and opinions is to minimize the risk. In the article "Group
Size: A Determinant of the Quality and Stability of Group Decisions", Robert C.Ziller
also wrote that team members are more likely to notice and correct potentially
harmful mistakes that include inclusion and make the right decision. Furthermore, a
group is likely to generate more ideas than an individual. And the best way to have a
good idea is to have lots of ideas. The more ideas that are considered, the more
effective the final solution will be. No other method of solution-making has as many
ideas to choose from as team decision - making. Not only that, but these ideas don't
just come from the individual working brains of team members. But it can also arise
in the process of members interacting with each other, and discussing with each
other. This process of interaction, and discussion often generates ideas and
solutions that they never had or never thought of. As a result, the decisions made by
the group are often more creative and flexible than other decision-making methods.
This allows problems to be solved more efficiently and to satisfy more requests.
By a group decision is the result of a group discussion, implementing the solution
becomes easier. Since team members are all involved in creating the final solution,
they are more invested and more willing to dedicate themselves to making the
solution a success. Moreover, team members all have to communicate and discuss
with each other in the decision-making process. This not only helps to increase the
closeness and coordination among employees. It also helps employees learn a lot of
experience and skills from others. Decisions made in groups help increase employee
satisfaction at work and reduce disagreement. We can clearly see this result in the
way Disney implements decision-making. In one corner of Disney, employees are
empowered to make decisions. ESPN is an American multinational sports media
corporation jointly owned by The Walt Disney Company and Hearst communications.
Every year ESPN lets its employees choose the company's priorities for the next
year. The company's priority list starts at 10 priorities. The staff joined hands to help
bring that long list down to the last 3 or 4 main priorities. And these will become the
company's priorities next year. George Bodenheimer, the president of ESPN,
recounted that after the voting ended and the final results were obtained, the whole
stage almost broke down, bursting with thunderous applause. Despite the
controversy, it is clear that the group decision - making approach has helped the
company articulate its mission and overall mission for the coming year. Even the
lowest level of employees are involved in the decision-making process, they will then
work wholeheartedly for their choice and keep the company on track.
Cooper and Kagel have shown that decisions made by groups yield results that
exceed expectations and are far better than those made by the most skilled
individuals in the group. In contrast, other researchers reported no difference or even
worse performance when comparing decisions made by groups with individuals. This
may sound intimidating to the typical control manager. But we can't deny that in the
majority of organizations, important decisions are made by the team and all bring
about extremely desirable results.