Group Decision-Making - Essay Example

Group Decision Making Number: submitted: Introduction Group decision making process plays an important role in determining the effectiveness of team operations and enhancing the capabilities of the team in contributing to common goals. Group decision making provides an effective platform of information sharing and processing helping the members understand the implications related to the context and analyse the situation from different perspective. While interaction and communication play an important role in decision making process in groups, the methods or approach taken to arrive at a final decision varies from one context to another. Thus, in cases where decision making involves technical aspects, tools and applications come in handy to the group members, whereas in situations that warrants identifying potential issues and challenges, brainstorming and discussions play an important role. How do groups arrive at decisions that are mutually understood and accepted? What are the different dimensions involved in the group decision making process? These are some of the questions addressed in this paper that illustrates the dynamics of group decision making through practical insights and examples. Group dynamics and decision making process Groups comprising of number of individuals provide an effective platform for enhancing performance at workplace or achieving common goals and objectives that form the primary reason for forming a group. Working in a group is riddled with challenges since individuals from different backgrounds, attitude and opinion come together to work towards common goals (O’Connell & Cuthbertson, 2009). Coordination and cooperation among the group members can be challenging since arriving at a single decision requires mutual understanding and empathy between the group members. The diversity in opinion, outlook and perspective clash at each stage of the decision making process – thereby causing conflict and failure to arrive at a single decision. However, the benefits associated to working in groups cannot be undermined since collaborative ventures can be more fruitful and have expanded potentials in terms of achieving the desired outcomes (foundation coalition, 2011). In order to overcome these challenges decision making process within groups is guided by certain norms and statutes that help the group in arriving at a decision. The effectiveness of decision making in groups is realized in the fact that an individual could not have taken the decision alone, the decision provides a perfect solution to the problem, the decision is based on unbiased inputs provided by group members and contributes to the group objectives (foundation coalition, 2011). Johnson and Johnson in their book (2009) describe five distinct methods of decision making that include decision making by authority, decision making by majority, decision making by minority, decision making by expert and decision making by consensus. Among these methods decision making by expert and consensus are widely used in most scenarios. Group discussions and problem solving processes in groups are often presided by experts who can provide their valuable opinion and views in context that helps the group in making the final decision. Often the expert is one of the members of the groups and in some cases an external individual might be consulted or asked to preside over the discussions to enable the group to take judicious decisions. However, the primary challenge in this decision making approach lies in identifying a key member of the group or external individual who is acknowledged as an expert in the given context by all members of the group. “Group members who do not view the expert as an authority may be reluctant to implement the recommended decision” (O’Connell & Cuthbertson, 2009). Decision making by group consensus is commonly applied in teams working towards common goals and objectives. The term consensus implies that all members of the group or team whole heartedly agree to a particular solution or decision to solve the existing problem. The group in this approach relies on open and collaborative environment that supports extensive communication between the group members and in-depth discussion of the problems before arriving at a particular decision (O’Connell & Cuthbertson, 2009). The primary limitation of this approach is its time consuming process since each and every member of the group express their own ideas, views and perspectives that leads to debates on the issues before coming to a conclusion. Johnson & Johnson (2009) suggest that groups involved in decision making by consensus must avoid arguing blindly, avoid changing their minds, seek out differences of opinion, and think foremost of the group instead of seeking personal gratification. Effective decision making process Decision by expert In this model of team decision making, the person with the most expertise regarding the subject matter is chosen. Then the expert considers the various factors affecting the decision and makes the final decision. This type of model can be useful when one person in the group has the superior expertise. But it may not always be easy to choose the expert. The team members may have different views and not have a unilateral opinion on who is the expert. The selection of the expert could involve bias or favoritism. This will affect the team spirit as the other team members may feel that they are less capable and get demotivated. In decision by expert, all the authority is vested with the expert to make the decisions. There could be no interaction and discussion between the team members. (Foundation Coalition, 2001). This could lead to non-cooperation from the other team members on the implementation of the decisions made by the expert. The decision making process could become one-dimensional if the expert does not seek and take into consideration the opinions of the team. For example, a particular team is involved in testing of a new tool used in the business process. The manager or team leader decides to choose an expert from the group in order to carry out the testing and provide results. In this case, the entire activity of testing the new tool and providing the feedback about how the tool works is vested with the expert. The process of selecting the expert is itself contentious in a team environment, where team members may have differing opinions on who has the most expertise. It could involve favoritism and power issues. The testing conducted by the expert may not be all inclusive. He may have focused on only on those areas that affect his work. The other team members do not get the chance to test the performance of the new tool. Hence they cannot give feedback about those aspects of the new tool that affects their work areas. There is no scope of group interaction as the expert does all the testing and decision making. In this case, the testing may not be thorough and fool proof. It could become one-dimensional and may not yield the desired results. The attitude and temperament of the expert will also have an impact on the decision making process. He must be not misuse the authority vested in him. The expert must not have individual goals in mind during the decision making. Het must work towards achieving the best results for the team and the organization (Teamwork & Teamplay, 2010). Even after the testing is completed and the new tool is implemented in the team for use by all the team members, there could be repercussions from the decision making by the expert. Team members may find some problems or issues with the working of the new tool. They may imbibe an attitude of disinterest and non-cooperation as they may not take ownership of the new tool. This affects the overall team performance and adversely affects the organizational performance. As a result, it is advisable to use the model of decision making by expert only in certain scenarios. It can be useful in teams where one person has the overwhelming expertise and has the required skills to accomplish the tasks and make the correct decisions. The expert should be open to seeking opinions of the other team members. The expert should take into account the constructive suggestions of the group members. The expert should not misuse the power vested in him. He must the authority given to him to yield productive results for the team and work towards contributing towards improving organizational performance. Decision by consensus In this model of team decision making, all the persons in the group collectively make the decisions. The team members communicate and interact in a open, fair and transparent manner. All the team members are given an opportunity to express their views and opinions. The opinions are taken into consideration when making the decisions. This is one of the most preferable methods of team decision making. It is a collaborative and democratic process for decision making in an organization. This model gives a fair and equal opportunity for all the people in the group to express their opinions and have a say in the decision making. The team members feel that their views are valued and that their opinion matters (University of Minnesota, 2011). Team members have an increased sense of responsibility and accountability. It serves as an effective tool for boosting employee confidence and morale. It motivates them to perform better and work towards productive results. They want to make a meaningful contribution towards improving the organizational effectiveness (Anderung, 2007). However, this method does suffer from some drawbacks. This process of decision making by consensus in a group could be time consuming and laborious. It is not always suitable for situations when decisions have to be taken and implemented swiftly in the organization. There is also a cost factor. In groups with more members, a number of productive hours may go into discussing issues and formulating decisions. This method requires the full commitment and contribution from all the members in the group. In some situations, the team members may not be have the right attitude to take part in the decision making process. They may not be willing to take up responsibility and be accountable (Foundation Coalition, 2011). Group cohesion and its impacts on decision making Group cohesion exists when team members feel that working together in achieving common goals is in mutual interest. Group cohesion is influenced by emotional and task related factors. When there is high cohesion in a group, it has both positive and negative consequences. The positive side is that when groups stick together and work in harmony, the team and organizational goals are achieved in a smooth and effective manner. However, the negative side could be the people may become too familiar and comfortable with their work environment and team members. There could be reduced competitive spirit among individual members due to an over emphasis on team work and spirit. Over a period of time, team members become so accustomed to working in a group, that they need team work even for completing small tasks (O’Connell & Cuthbertson, 2009). Conclusion Organizations today are increasingly using teams or group of people to accomplish tasks and fulfill goals and objectives. A team is a group of people that comes into existence for a specific purpose and works together to achieve the common goals. Group decision making is a complex and multifaceted process. There are several models of decision making that can be employed by teams. It is important for the team members to have knowledge of these models in order to choose the most appropriate method keeping in mind the purpose and objective. References Anderung, L. (2007). Team management. Retrieved on July 18 2011 from http://www.pri.univie.ac.at/topics/Schlesinger/index.php?m=D&t=ma&c=show&CEWebS_what=Team~32~Management Foundation Coalition. (2011). Methods for decision making. Retrieved on July 18 2011 from http://www.foundationcoalition.org/home/keycomponents/teams/decision2.html O’Connell, T.S. & Cuthbertson, B. (2009). Group dynamics in recreation and leisure – creating conscious groups through an experiential approach. Human Kinetics. Teamwork & Teamplay. (2010). Exploring the five stages of group formation – using adventure based and active learning techniques. Retrieved on July 18 2011 from http://www.teamworkandteamplay.com/resources/resource_5stages.pdf University of Minnesota. (2011). What’s the best decision making method? Retrieved on July 18 2011 from http://www.extension.umn.edu/distribution/citizenship/components/00018f.html Read More