Chapter 6s: Group Decision Making

Sunday, October 27, 2019

6:20 PM

Definition
Group decision making is making decisions by convening a group of people.
• This is not always possible due to time constraints.
• Groups usually make higher quality decisions
• Groups are often inferior to the best individual
o Effectively capitalizing potential advantages
o Effectively minimizing potential problems

Group Processes

Social Facilitation:
The tendency of the presence of others to enhance performance on simple
tasks and impair performance on complex tasks

Social Loafing:
The tendency of the presence of others to reduce individual efforts in tasks for
which contributions are pooled.

Advantages vs Disadvantages of Group Decision Making

Advantages
More information
Different perspectives
Intellectual Stimulation through
discussions, that lead to higher
Disadvantages
Domination: only the louder people are
heard, even though they may not have
the most valid opinion. This leads to
other group members waste of time
Satisfying rather than maximizing (due
to opposite opinions that force
compromise)
Goal displacement: group members lose
focus on the original goal, and start
quality and more informed trying to win an argument (new
decisions irrelevant goal).
Group members understand the Groupthink: Avoidance of disagreement,
logical thinking behind the decision sticking for consensus.
-- rationale, which leads to a
general agreement: buy-in.
Higher level of commitment, higher
chance of successful
implementation.

Effective Group Decision Making

There are 3 factors that play role in effective group decision making:
leadership style, creativity and constructive conflict.

• Leadership
A good leader in a group decision making situation should:
• Avoid domination
• Encourage input
• Avoid groupthink and satisficing
• Remember the important and relevant goal.

• Creativity
Creativity is essential for custom-made solutions

Creativity is not only about art, it can be shown through:

• Creation: coming up with something new
• Synthesis: linking two previously unrelated things
• Modification: improve something and give it a new application

One of the most essential things for creativity in group decision making is:
Brainstorming through:
• Avoiding criticism
• Exhausting ideas
• Combining ideas
• Constructive conflict

a. Legitimate: Cognitive Conflicts: Differences in perspective and

judgement
Solutions:
• Play devil's advocate: criticizing ideas to ensure their
downsides are fully exposed
• Dialectic: Strategic debate between plan and
counterplan

b. Illegitimate: Affective Conflicts: Emotional and directed at other

people
Solution:
• Stay task-related and be impersonal: "it is not about
you, it is about the task!"