Group Decision Making.

 

Decision-making groups may be widely used in organizations, but are group decisions preferable to those made by an individual alone? The answer depends on the number of factors. Let´s begin by looking at the strengths and weaknesses of group decision making.

 

Strengths of Group Decision Making

• Groups generate more complete information and knowledge. By aggregating resources of several individuals, groups bring more input as well as heterogeneity into the decision process.

• They offer increased diversity of views. This opens up the opportunity to consider more approaches and alternatives. 

• Finally, groups lead to increased acceptance of a solution. Many decisions fail because people do not accept the solution. Group members who participated in making a decision are more likely to enthusiastically support the decision and encourage others to accept it.

 

Weaknesses of Group Decision Making

• They are time consuming, because groups typically take more time to reach a solution.

• There are conformity pressures. The desire by group members to be accepted and considered asset to the group can squash any over disagreement.

• Group discussion can be dominated by one or few members. If they are low- and medium-ability members, the overall´s group effectiveness will suffer.

• Finally, group decision suffer from ambiguous responsibility. In an individual decision, it is clear who is accountable for the final outcome. In a group decision, the responsibility of any single member is diluted.