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Disadvantages of group decision making
Advantages and disadvantages of Group decision support system
Advantages and disadvantages of Group decision support system
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In organizations, decision-making often requires many people to work together and spend a lot of time in meetings. These meetings may be enhanced using a Group Decision Support System. Group Decision Support System, or GDSS, is “an interactive, computer- based system that helps a team of decision-makers solve problems and make choices. GDSS are targeted to supporting groups in analyzing problem situations and in performing group decision-making tasks” (Power 2005). Group Decision Support Systems are designed to help groups in meetings reach a consensus. “The fundamental goal of a GDSS is to support collaborative work activities such as idea creation, message exchange, project planning, document preparation, mutual product creation and joint planning and decision making”(Steinfeld, 1990, p. 174) The research for computer-based Group Decision …show more content…
According to Robbins, “Groups generate more complex information and knowledge. By aggregating the resources of several individuals, groups bring more input as well as heterogeneity into the decision process”(Robbins, 2015, p. 262). Group decision provides a greater variety of views. This allows the opportunity to consider other approaches. With group decision there tends to be more accepting the solution. Robbins states, participate of the decision making are more likely to support and motivate others to accept it.(Robbins, 2015, p. 262) Weakness of group decision making include that group decision are time-consuming because with a group a people there are many opinions, taking more time to reach a solution. In a group decision, people may feel pressure to conform their solution. Another possible disadvantage is that it can lead to a diffusion of responsibility. Boundless states “group decisions can make it easier for member to deny personal responsibility and blame others for bad decisions” (Boundless,
Turman, P. (October 13, 2000b). Group Decision Making & Problem Solving: Group Communication [Lecture] Cedar Falls, IA. University of Northern Iowa, Communication Studies Department.
Proactive management of the decision-making process can minimize the threat of groupthink compromising the quality of decisions. Managers can place importance of having a wide variety of options and idea brought to the table. Encouraging employees to thoroughly analyze all aspects of the options, from the moral and ethical implications, to the response they can expect from their opposition. With each decision appoint one or more group member to play devil’s advocate to the suggested options, ask that person to analyze and make a case against each of the suggestions (Sims & Sauser, 2013). Rotate this position throughout the group so that one person is not refuting the groups ideas consistently. Continually encouraging and rewarding contrasting views can hedge the complacency groups fall into after working together for periods of time. Management should be active listeners in the decision-making process being careful to not assert their preference towards a certain option to avoid the group conforming to the preferences of their superiors before the options are fully analyzed (Rose, 2011). Finally, after a decision has been made and the analysis has been completed before implementing or going public with the idea reconvene and go through the choose plan of action one last time to ensure that new information has not become available and
Instead of making decisions independently, now people always rely on others, such as groups or computers, to help them make a decision. Small groups often gives people different points of view and let people understand their situation much more clearly. However, these opinions from others may not be suitable for everyone. James Surowiecki uses the story of the Columbia Disaster to discuss efficiency of small groups. In his essay “Committees, Juries, and Teams: The Columbia Disaster and How Small Groups Can Be Made to Work”, Surowiecki tells us how the small groups can work properly instead of making people “dumber”. Even though, the small group contains people with great
What tools are available to assist teams in making a decision? In addition to creating an environment for effective decision making and reaching consensus on methods for making decisions as a team, there are tools that can assist teams in formulating and reaching decisions. Many of these tools were developed in the 1990s as companies working on improving quality and introducing self-managed team into the workplace. In decision-making there are many different decision-making models to assist us along the way. One thing with every decision- making model there are several decision-making tools needed to help narrow down the amount of information to only the ideas that are relevant to the decision at hand. In this paper we are going to examine one of the many different decision-making tools that can assist us in this process. The specific decision-making tool we shall discuss is for team-based decisions.
In the workplace, the team leader's job is to make decisions that benefit the team and the whole company. This places them with a lot of responsibility. They must contemplate the options and consciously select the decision-making strategy most appropriate for the circumstances in which the decision will be made and implemented. Often the decision-making style chosen is among the most significant roles of the project manager. Communication and interpersonal skills of the group members influence the decision. The incorrect approach can cause problems within the group. "Research conducted by Wheelen, Murphy, Tsumura and Kline (1998) demonstrates a clear correlation between positive group dynamics and team productivity". There are many decision-making strategies available. Three of the most common styles are when decisions are made by the group leader alone, decisions by the leader after group discussion, and consensus by the whole group.
It is important to distinguish the difference between teams and groups. The main difference is that teams work altogether toward a common goal whereas groups can work altogether but for their own objective. It is important to highlight that a group does not necessary need a leader to follow but a team does and this leader will set directions to achieve the goal. In teams people are more committed as they share their ideas, they know the purpose of what they are doing and what the others are doing, they understand better individual objectives and team objectives whereas in groups, generally people are just told what they have to do without further explanations. Because in a team people get to know each other, it builds trust and enhances communication but in groups, people do not really know each other, do not trust or communicate effectively with each other. In teams it is frequent to see constructive conflict as people talk more openly and more honestly but in group it is quite rare. Eventually, people in teams are more involv...
In 1972, Irving Janis presented a set of hypothesis that he extracted from observing small groups performing problem solving tasks; he collectively referred to these hypotheses as groupthink¹. He defined groupthink as “a quick and easy way to refer to a mode of thinking that people engage in when they are deeply involved in a cohesive in-group, when the members’ striving for unanimity override their motivation to realistically appraise alternative courses of action²” A successful group brings varied ideas, collective knowledge, and focus on the task at hand. The importance of groups is to accomplish tasks that individuals can not do on their own. The Bay of Pigs, Watergate, and the Challenger disaster are all forms of failure within a group. Specifically, you can see the effect of groupthink of Americans before September 11, 2001. The thought of harm to the United States was unfathomable, but only after the attacks did they realize they were not invincible. When a solid, highly cohesive group is only concerned with maintaining agreement, they fail to see their alternatives and any other available options. When a group experiences groupthink, they may feel uninterested about a task, don't feel like they will be successful, and the group members do not challenge ideas. Stress is also a factor in the failure of groupthink. An effective group needs to have clear goals, trust, accountability, support, and training. Some indicators that groupthink may be happening are; making unethical decisions, they think they are never wrong, close-minded about situations, and ignore important information. Many things can be done to prevent groupthink from happening. One way is to make each person in the group a “critical evaluator”. The leader must ...
Kerr, N. L., & Scott, T. R. Group Performance and Decision Making. Annual Review of Psychology, 623-655.
... that areas of expertise can be exploited, different people are good at different things. Groups can discuss material, and that discussion can improve the quality of the decision. Groups are less likely to suffer from judgmental biases that individuals have when they make decisions. People are more likely to follow through on decisions made by groups that they are connected to. Also, more monumental decisions can be made in groups, because one member will not be singled out for blame, making the entire group responsible.
Mesa’s Foundation Trust (MFT) is a medical provider that provides services to patients. MFT wants to reduce the amount of resources that were provider by several other facilities. During this consolidation MFT’s goal to continue to provide the same types of service and without impacting the amount of time. The need for a decision support system that can not only maintain the historical data, but also capture new data for analyzing. Based on the needs IT support must build the DSS to handle semi-structured problems. The decisions that are made based on given data are standard, but there will always be problems that fall outside the norm (Turban, Sharda, & Delen, 2011). There will be data that is known, but there will also be the unknown. The data should be gathered into a database that can provide management the ability to analyze. The system must be able to collect the given data and an process the information in a format that is understanding to the decision makers. Within the data driven model of the decision support system, the staff at the facility can quickly attend to the patients. Data must be accessible to all the associated medical facilities for MF...
Indeed some research found that the team diversity have positive impact to decision making. For example, one of the research found that the diversity at educational level can positively influence the decision making and also affected on team performance (Simons). In addition, Dooley and Frywell illustrated that the discussion and argument was associated with quality decision making in U.S. hospital. However, some researches also demonstrated that the diversity in the team can have negative influence on decision making. For example, Sounder () found that, in diversity teams, because of the lots of difference between team members, sometimes its difficult to reach an agreement. Although, sometimes diversity in the team can improve the quality of decision making, it also increase the conflict within the team members, and impede the cooperation
Groupthink is the psychological phenomenon in which groups working on a task think along the same lines which could have drastic results. It is the result of group polarization where discussions are enhance or exaggerate the initial leanings of the group. Therefore, if a group leans towards risky situation at the beginning of the discussion on average they will move toward an even riskier position. (Marks, 2015). The idea when everyone think the same no one is really thinking. The drastic outcomes result from people trying to avoid conflict with one another, being highly cohesive, and results is questionable decision making (Oliver, 2013). Houghton Mifflin publication of Victims of Groupthink: A Psychological Study of Foreign-Policy Decisions
Group decision making has many benefits for the individuals involved and the organization itself. In order for group decision making to be efficient, it is important for a creative environment to exist. “Creativity is the mental and social process used to generate ideas, concepts and associations that lead to the exploration of new ideas (May, 2011, para.3). This allows each employee to explore ideas and feel comfortable to share them without fear of rejection.
Working in groups is challenging at times. Other times it is very rewarding. We are so focused on life that we do not take time to reflect on things as much as we should. Being in a Groups class has opened my eyes to a whole new world. I have begun to question, explore, and even understand how things work. I even get how they work sometimes. Not only is there a process involved in making individual decisions, process is involved in group decisions as well. This paper attempts give insight into my reflection of my group decision process.
Several experiments and researches have been conducted that have focused on how people behave in groups. The findings have revealed that groups affect peoples’ attitudes, behavior and perceptions. Groups are essential for personal life, as well as in work life.