Group decision-making (also known as collaborative decision-making) is a situation faced when individuals collectively make a choice from the alternatives before them. The decision is then no longer attributable to any single individual who is a member of the group. This is because all the individuals and social group processes such as social influence contribute to the outcome. The decisions made by groups are often different from those made by individuals. Group polarization is one clear example: groups tend to make decisions that are more extreme than those of its individual members, in the direction of the individual inclinations.
Contents
- Group decision making in psychology
- Formal systems
- Decision making in social settings
- Social decision schemes
- Normative model of decision making
- Decision support systems
- Group discussion pitfalls
- Cognitive limitations and subsequent error
- Sins of Commission
- Sins of Omission
- Sins of Imprecision
- References
There is much debate as to whether this difference results in decisions that are better or worse. According to the idea of synergy, decisions made collectively tend to be more effective than decisions made by a single individual. However, there are also examples where the decisions made by a group are flawed, such as the Bay of Pigs invasion, the incident on which the groupthink model of group decision-making is based.
Factors that impact other social group behaviours also affect group decisions. For example, groups high in cohesion, in combination with other antecedent conditions (e.g. ideological homogeneity and insulation from dissenting opinions) have been noted to have a negative effect on group decision-making and hence on group effectiveness. Moreover, when individuals make decisions as part of a group, there is a tendency to exhibit a bias towards discussing shared information (i.e. shared information bias), as opposed to unshared information.
Group decision-making in psychology
The social identity approach suggests a more general approach to group decision-making than the popular groupthink model, which is a narrow look at situations where group decision-making is flawed. Social identity analysis suggests that the changes which occur during collective decision-making is part of rational psychological processes which build on the essence of the group in ways that are psychologically efficient, grounded in the social reality experienced by members of the group and have the potential to have a positive impact on society.
Formal systems
Decision-making in social settings
Decision-making in groups is sometimes examined separately as process and outcome. Process refers to the group interactions. Some relevant ideas include coalitions among participants as well as influence and persuasion. The use of politics is often judged negatively, but it is a useful way to approach problems when preferences among actors are in conflict, when dependencies exist that cannot be avoided, when there are no super-ordinate authorities, and when the technical or scientific merit of the options is ambiguous.
In addition to the different processes involved in making decisions, group-decision support systems (GDSSs) may have different decision rules. A decision rule is the GDSS protocol a group uses to choose among scenario planning alternatives.
Plurality and dictatorship are less desirable as decision rules because they do not require the involvement of the broader group to determine a choice. Thus, they do not engender commitment to the course of action chosen. An absence of commitment from individuals in the group can be problematic during the implementation phase of a decision.
There are no perfect decision-making rules. Depending on how the rules are implemented in practice and the situation, all of these can lead to situations where either no decision is made, or to situations where decisions made are inconsistent with one another over time.
Social decision schemes
Sometimes, groups may have established and clearly defined standards for making decisions, such as bylaws and statutes. However, it is often the case that the decision-making process is less formal, and might even be implicitly accepted. Social decision schemes are the methods used by a group to combine individual responses to come up with a single group decision. There are a number of these schemes, but the following are the most common:
There are strengths and weaknesses to each of these social decision schemes. Delegation saves time and is a good method for less important decisions, but ignored members might react negatively. Averaging responses will cancel out extreme opinions, but the final decision might disappoint many members. Plurality is the most consistent scheme when superior decisions are being made, and it involves the least amount of effort. Voting, however, may lead to members feeling alienated when they lose a close vote, or to internal politics, or to conformity to other opinions. Consensus schemes involve members more deeply, and tend to lead to high levels of commitment. But, it might be difficult for the group to reach such decisions.
Normative model of decision-making
Groups have many advantages and disadvantages when making decisions. Groups, by definition, are composed of two or more people, and for this reason naturally have access to more information and have a greater capacity to process this information. However, they also present a number of liabilities to decision-making, such as requiring more time to make choices and by consequence rushing to a low-quality agreement in order to be timely. Some issues are also so simple that a group decision-making process leads to too many cooks in the kitchen: for such trivial issues, having a group make the decision is overkill and can lead to failure. Because groups offer both advantages and disadvantages in making decisions, Victor Vroom developed a normative model of decision-making that suggests different decision-making methods should be selected depending on the situation. In this model, Vroom identified five different decision-making processes.
Decision support systems
The idea of using computerized support systems is discussed by James Reason under the heading of intelligent decision support systems in his work on the topic of human error. James Reason notes that events subsequent to The Three Mile accident have not inspired great confidence in the efficacy of some of these methods. In the Davis-Besse accident, for example, both independent safety parameter display systems were out of action before and during the event.
Decision-making software is essential for autonomous robots and for different forms of active decision support for industrial operators, designers and managers.
Due to the large number of considerations involved in many decisions, computer-based decision support systems (DSS) have been developed to assist decision-makers in considering the implications of various courses of thinking. They can help reduce the risk of human errors. DSSs which try to realize some human-cognitive decision-making functions are called Intelligent Decision Support Systems (IDSS). On the other hand, an active and intelligent DSS is an important tool for the design of complex engineering systems and the management of large technological and business projects.
Group discussion pitfalls
Groups have greater informational and motivational resources, and therefore have the potential to outperform individuals. However they do not always reach this potential. Groups often lack proper communication skills. On the sender side this means that group members may lack the skills needed to express themselves clearly. On the receiver side this means that miscommunication can result from information processing limitations and faulty listening habits of human beings. In cases where an individual controls the group it may prevent others from contributing meaningfully.
It is also the case that groups sometimes use discussion to avoid rather than make a decision. Avoidance tactics include the following:
Two fundamental "laws" that groups all too often obey:
(For example, a committee discusses an expenditure of $20 million for 3 minutes and one for $500 for 15 minutes.)
Cognitive limitations and subsequent error
Individuals in a group decision-making setting are often functioning under substantial cognitive demands. As a result, cognitive and motivational biases can often affect group decision-making adversely. According to Forsyth, there are three categories of potential biases that a group can fall victim to when engaging in decision-making:
"Sins of Commission"
The misuse, abuse and/or inappropriate use of information, including:
"Sins of Omission"
Overlooking useful information. This can include:
"Sins of Imprecision"
Relying too heavily on heuristics that over-simplify complex decisions. This can include: