Group Decision Making PDF

Group Decision Making 1 www.wiredprof.com 17/06/1446  Group Decision Making Important decisions that have far-reaching effects on organizational activities are typically made in groups. Most organization use committees, work teams, task forces, review pan...

Group Decision Making 1 www.wiredprof.com 17/06/1446  Group Decision Making Important decisions that have far-reaching effects on organizational activities are typically made in groups. Most organization use committees, work teams, task forces, review panels, or similar groups for making decisions. These groups represent the people who will be most affected by the decisions being made. Because of their expertise, these people are often best qualified to make decisions that affect them. Managers spend a significant portion of their time in meetings. Individual and group decisions have their own set of strengths. Neither is ideal for all situations.  Advantages of Group Decision Making The advantages that group decisions have over individual decisions. 1. Group decisions provide more complete information than do individual ones. ( two heads are better than one). 2. A group will bring a diversity of experiences and perspectives to the decision process that an individual acting alone cannot. 3. Groups also generate more alternatives. (Because group members represent different specialties). 4. Group decision making increases acceptance of a solution. Many decisions fail after the final choice has been made because people do not accept the solution. 5. Group decision-making process is more democratic.  Disadvantages of Group Decision Making 1. Group decisions are time-consuming. It takes time to assemble a group. The interaction between group member is frequently inefficient. More time to reach a solution than an individual would take to make the decision. 2. Group decisions subject to minority domination, where members of a group are never perfectly equal. They may differ in rank in the organization, experience, knowledge about the problem, influence on other members, skills and the like. This imbalance creates the opportunity for one or more members to dominate others in the group. 3. Group decisions may be affected by pressures to conform in groups. Group members withhold minority or unpopular views in order to give the appearance of agreement. 4. Ambiguous responsibility can become a problem. (Group members share responsibility, but non of them is actually responsible for the final outcome)  Size of the group Group decision making is influenced by the size of the group. Groups should not be too large: A larger group requires more coordination and more time to allow all members to contribute. Groups should be odd numbers to avoid decision deadlocks. A minimum of 5 to a maximum of about 15 members is best. Groups of 5 -7 individuals appear to be the most effective.  Criteria for effectiveness of decision: The criteria for defining effectiveness: 1. Accuracy, 2. Speed, 3. Creativity 4. Acceptance Group decisions tend to be more accurate, creative and accepted than individuals. Individual decisions are more speed than Group decisions.  Creativity in Decision Making: Creativity: Ability to produce novel and useful ideas. Ideas different from what’s been done before but are also appropriate to the problem or opportunity presented. Why is creativity important to decision making? It allows the decision maker to appraise and understand the problem more fully, including “seeing” problems others can’t see. Creativity help the decision maker identify all viable alternatives. People have to get out of the psychological ruts most of us get into and learn how to think about a problem in divergent ways. People differ in their creativity. Einstein, Edison and Mozart were individuals of exceptional creativity. Most people are at least moderately creative.  Three ways to stimulate employee creativity 1. Expertise 2. Creative-thinking skills 3. Intrinsic task motivation. 1- Expertise: is the foundation of all creative work. Einstein’s knowledge of physics were necessary conditions to be able to make creative contributions to his fields. You wouldn’t expect someone with a minimal knowledge of programming to be highly creative as a software engineer. 2- Creative-thinking skills: It includes personality characteristics, use analogies and the talent to see the familiar in a different light. Creative ideas associated with: intelligence, independence, self- confidence, internal locus of control and tolerance for ambiguity. They’re able to make the strange familiar and the familiar strange. 3-Intrinsic task motivation: the desire to work on something because it’s interesting, involving, exciting, satisfying, or personally challenging. This motivational component is what turns creative potential into actual creative ideas. Creative people often love their work. An individual’s work environment and the organization’s culture can have a significant effect on intrinsic motivation.  Three Ways to Improve Group Decision Making Brainstorming Nominal group Electronic technique meetings 1-Brainstorming: simple process for generating ideas that specifically encourages all alternatives while withholding any criticism of those alternatives. A half-dozen to a dozen people sit around a table. The group leader states the problem in a clear manner that is understood by all participants. Members then “freewheel” as many alternatives as they can in a given time. No criticism is allowed, and all the alternatives are recorded for later discussion and analysis. 2- Nominal group technique: Nominal group technique helps groups to arrive at a preferred solution. Restricts discussion during the decision-making process, hence the term. Group members must be present, as in a traditional committee meeting, but they are required to operate independently. They secretly write a list of general problem areas or potential solutions to a problem. The chief advantage of this technique is that it permits the group to meet formally but does not restrict independent thinking. 3-Electronic meetings: Electronic meeting: is the most recent approach to group decision making the nominal group technique with computer technology. 1. People sit around a table that’s empty except for a series of computer terminals. 2. Issues are presented to the participants, who type their responses onto their computer screens. 3. Individual comments, as well as aggregate votes, are displayed on a projection screen in the room. The major advantages of electronic meetings are anonymity, honesty, and speed. Participants can anonymously type any message they want, and it will flash on the screen for all to see. It allows people to be brutally honest with no penalty.  Many participants can “talk” at once without interrupting the others. Electronic meetings are significantly faster and much cheaper than traditional face to-face meetings. Videoconference: a variation of the electronic meeting. By linking together media from different locations, people can have face-to-face meetings even when they are thousands of miles apart. Many companies utilized these approaches during the global recession. Importance of finding relevant data, information and knowledge 1- Productivity: Good data management make your organization more productive. Poor data management lead to your organization being very week. It provides the structure for information to be easily Shared with employees and to be stored for future reference and easy retrieval 2- Cost Efficiency: Good data management will allow your organization to avoid unnecessary duplication. By storing and making all data easily referable it ensures you never have employees conducting the same research, analysis or work that has already been completed by another employee. 3- Operational Nimbleness: In business the speed at which a company can make decisions and change direction is a key factor to determining how successful a company can be. If a company takes too long to react to the market or its competitors it can spell disaster for the company. Good data management allow employees to access information and be notified of market or competitor changes faster. It allows a company to make decisions and take action faster than companies who have poor data management. 4- Security Risks: There are multiple risks if your data is not managed properly and your information falls into the hands of the wrong people. A strong data management system will greatly reduce the risk of this ever happening to your organization. 5- Reduced Data Loss: With a data management system can greatly reduce the risk of losing vital information. With a data management, important information is backed up and retrievable from a secondary source if the primary source ever becomes non accessible. ` 6- More Accurate Decisions: Many organizations use different sources of information for planning, trends analysis, and managing performance. Decision makers across the organization are often analyzing different numbers to make decisions that will affect the company, and result in poor or inaccurate conclusions without a data management system in place.  Instead of being proactive most organization are reactive, which in the long run costs them significantly more. Data entry errors, conclusion errors and processing inefficiencies are all risks for companies that don't have a strong data management plan and system.