Dynamics of Group Decision Making - Essay Example

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In terms of individual participation not all the group members were actively involved, however one of us remained passive throughout the discussion. This can be attributed to a number of factors such as diffusion responsibility as argued by ( Ciccarelli, 2009) of a socio-psychological condition that some individuals tend to take less responsibility for action in the presence of others. In this state, an individual assumes that others are in charge of taking the required actions to solve a problem.

Another explanation of this individual behavior during group decision-making can be attributed to social facilitation which is the effect on an individual’s performance negatively or positively in the presence of others.

Social facilitation has two major effects on decision making inclusive of Audience effects characterized by passive individuals within the group. Such individuals do not always make efforts to perform duties in the presence of others.

Co-action is another result of social facilitation, which is the effect on performance due to the presence of other people. It exhibits a characteristic feature of the facilitated performance.

The group member’s behavior can also be attributed to social loafing in which individuals tend to place limited efforts when they are working collectively to solve common tasks. These conditions may occur to individuals when they feel that a group’s performance may not be evaluated according to a specific person's input or when no one person will be reared or blamed for the group’s performance. All these explanations may explicit the passive behavior of one of our group members. (Williams, 1981)

This task was indeed challenging and could require more time if it was to be solved by an individual. The rate of providing solutions for this task was comparatively faster in my view as well as my level of performance. This phenomenon can be also attributed to social facilitation that the presence of other people may heighten the level of an individual’s performance in solving difficult tasks (Zajonc, 1988)

Research by Norman (1898) indicated that some individuals tend to perform faster and better in the presence of others.