Interpersonal Relations & Group Dynamic

Chapter 5: Group Decision Making

Chapter Contents:
 Meaning of Group Decision Making
 Approaches to Group Decision Making
 Process of Problem Solving in Group
 Who Should Include in Group Decision Making?
 Multi Voting Techniques of Decision Making
 Hartnett’s CODM Model of Group Decision Making
 Dialectic Group Decision Making Process

5.1 Meaning of Group Decision Making

Group decision-making is the process of reaching a judgment based on feedback from more
than on individual. It is the collective activity wherein several persons interact simultaneously to
find out the solution to a given statement of a problem. In other words, group decision making is
a participatory process wherein multiple individuals work together to analyze the problem and
find out the optimum solution out of the available set of alternatives.

In group decision-making, the number of participants often ranges from two to seven. It is not
necessary that all the group members agree with each other and hence most of the times, the
decision is taken on the basis of a majority if no other mode of a majority is prescribed. The
majority means the number of votes in favor or against the proposed alternative.

5.2 Approaches to Group Decision Making

Two different approaches to group decision-making are the rational model and the political
model.

1. Rational Model: The rational decision-making model is the traditional, logical approach
to decision making, based on the scientific method. The search for optimum results is based
on an economic view of decision-making people hope to maximize gain and minimize loss.
Each alternative is evaluated in terms of how well it contributes to the goals involved in
making the decision.

2. Political Model: The political decision-making model assumes that people bring
preconceived notions and biases into the decision-making situation. Self-interest may block
people from making the most rational choice. People who use the political model may
operate on the basis of incomplete information.

5.3 Process of Problem Solving in Group

When team members get together to solve a problem, they typically hold a discussion rather than
rely on a formal problem-solving technique. A more systematic approach would be to use the
following steps:

1. Identify the problem. (What is the underlying problem?)

2. Clarify the problem. (Group members should see the problem in the same way.)
3. Analyze the cause. (The group must understand the cause of the problem and find ways to
overcome the cause.)
 4. Search for alternative solutions. (The alternative solutions chosen will depend on the
analysis of the causes.)
5. Select alternatives. (Identify the criteria that solutions should meet, and then discuss the
pros and cons of the proposed alternatives.)
6. Plan for implementation. (Decide what actions are necessary to carry out the chosen
solution to the problem.)
7. Clarify the contract. (Restate agreements on what to do and deadlines for
accomplishment.)
8. Develop an action plan. (Who does what and when to carry out the contract?)
9. Provide for evaluation and accountability. (After the plan is implemented, reconvene to
discuss progress and hold people accountable for results that have not been achieved.)

5.4 Who Should Include in Group Decision Making?

Originally created for use within a school system, the Hoy-Tarter Decision-Making Model can
actually be applied in a number of different settings. If you are the owner of manager of any kind
of organization, you already know just how difficult it can be to make decisions. Specifically, it
can be hard to decide how to make those decisions, in terms of who you should include, what
you should consider in the process, and more. Making good decisions is a key to success in
business, but you can only make good decisions if you have an appropriate process in place.

In this model, the main goal is to figure out exactly who should be included in the decision-
making process. Different decisions are going to require different inputs from various people; so
determining who should be included in making the decision (and who should be left out) is a key
step that should not to be overlooked.

The first step in the process of using this model is to think about each of your team members in
reference to a four-quadrant matrix that will help you determine whether or not each person
should be included. Two questions are used, each with a yes or no answer, to form this matrix.
Obviously, when you have two questions with two potential answers each, you will have four
possibilities for each team member that you evaluate as part of this process. Those four outcomes
are as follows.

1. Expertise – Yes, Personal Stake – Yes. If the team member receives a yes response for both
questions, they should almost certainly be included in the decision-making process.

2. Expertise – No, Personal Stake – Yes. This is a person who should be considered for a
marginal role in the decision-making process. On one hand, they don’t really have the expertise
to help you make the right choice from a technical perspective. However, on the other hand, they
are interested in the outcome and will likely work hard to steer the company in the right
direction.

3. Expertise – Yes, Personal Stake – No. This is another category of individual who should be
considered, but only needs to be included if their expertise is something that can make a big
imprint on the decision-making process. Do they have knowledge and experience that doesn’t
exist otherwise on your team?

4. Expertise – No, Personal Stake – No. It probably isn’t a surprise to find that this is a
category of team member which should be left out of the decision-making process.

5.5 Multi Voting Techniques of Decision Making

If you are making an organization decision that involves a number of people, you may have to
take a vote at some point in the process. But how do you take that vote? If you would like to use
voting to help make important organizational decisions from time to time, you may wish to
employ the popular Multivoting method. With this method, you can select the most popular
options from a list in order to get an idea about the consensus of the group. Multi-voting is not
always the right solution when trying to make a decision, but it can be perfect in specific
circumstances.

Multi-voting is a smart choice when you need to narrow down a list. That is the strength of this
kind of decision making – to take a large list and pare it down to the options on the list that are
the most popular among the group. For instance, let’s say your business needs to undertake new
marketing efforts in order to regain some lost market share. If that is the case, you may find that
your team has come up with a long list of ideas for new marketing ventures. However, you likely
won’t be able to use them all, so you will need to find a way to narrow down that list of ideas
based on the consensus of the group. By using Multi-voting, you can quickly figure out which
ideas are the most popular in the eyes of the team, and you can get started with your new
marketing concepts right away.

If you would like to use the Multi-voting method, the first thing you need to do is develop a list
of ideas that are going to be the subject of your vote. Ask the team that is working on this project
to collaborate on a list. At first, you can put any idea that is presented onto the list, but you will
want to slightly narrow down and ‘clean up’ that list before it goes to the vote.

Before taking the vote, you will want to decide on exactly how many votes each individual is
going to be given. Generally speaking, each person should be allowed to vote for roughly 1/3rd
of the ideas on the list. So, given a list of 15 items, each person would be allowed to place five
votes (thus the name ‘Multi-voting’). Of course, you are free to alter the number of votes allotted
as you see fit, but the 1/3rd rule is a good place to start.

With the number of votes decided, you will need to actually take the vote, either by a show of
hands or by secret ballot. As the vote progresses, you will tally the votes for each idea until all
votes have been cast and the process is complete.

5.6 Hartnett’s CODM Model of Group Decision Making

As you already know, it can be difficult – if not impossible – to come to a consensus when
working with a team of individuals. Everyone in your group is going to have their own opinions
on a given topic, and while there is bound to be some overlap in those opinions, there is going to
be some disagreement as well. As a manager or business owner, it is your job to sort through the
disagreements and use all of the opinions at hand to come to a decision that is in the best interest
of the organization.

Steps in CODM Model:

1. Framing the Problem: You can’t accurately solve a problem if you don’t know what the
problem is in the first place. Make sure that everyone on the team is well-informed as to the
specifics of the problem, why it is a problem, and what the ideal solution is going to
accomplish.

2. Having an Open Discussion: Once all involved are clear on what the problem is, the
next step is to have an open and casual discussion about that problem. At this point, there
aren’t going to be any grand plans established, and there certainly won’t’ be any decisions
made on how to move forward.

3. Identifying Underlying Concerns: One of the benefits of your initial meeting is the fact
that you are likely to uncover ‘hidden’ problems that weren’t really considered initially. As
your team discusses the main problem at hand, it may be that other issues pop up along the
way.

4. Developing Proposals: By the time you have reached this fourth step, things are going to
begin to get more organized. You will now put together some formal proposals on a solution
for the problem at hand. You can either work together with the entire team to develop a few
different proposals, or you can choose to break the team up into groups in order to have each
craft their own proposal. The latter option can be attractive when you have a ‘divided room’
– in other words, a meeting that is split into two or three different groups who view the issue
in different ways.

5. Choosing a Direction: With the proposals created and, on the table,, it will be time to
sort through them in order to make a decision. It is important to remember that you don’t
necessarily have to pick one specific proposal in order to move forward – it may be that the
best option for your needs is to use a combination of ideas from two or more proposals.

6. Developing a Preferred Solution: The time has come to make the final decision and to
put that decision into action. There will have been no point to going through this process is
the final decision isn’t going to be enacted, so make sure there are steps which will ‘get the
ball rolling’ on the decision as soon as it is approved and finalized.
 7. Closing and Monitoring: As you know, there is no such thing as a decision in business
that you can just forget about and move on from. You should be monitoring the decision
after it is made to make sure that it has had the desired effect. Most likely, you will need to
tweak minor things about the decision in order to make sure it is as successful as possible
over the short and long term.

6.5 Dialectic Group Decision Making Process

The Dialectic Decisions Method is a technique used to overcome the problem in the group-
decision making, wherein the group members quickly agree to one alternative proposal and
might overlook more promising solutions than the chosen one. Thus, it ensures a full
consideration of alternatives.

The reason behind such a quick converge on a single alternative may be, the participant’s
unwillingness to meet and get indulged into the tough discussions. Thus, in order to overcome
such problem, the dialectic decisions method came into existence.

1. First of all, a clear statement of a problem is stated.

2. Then, all the possible alternative proposals are generated.
3. Once the set of alternatives is listed, the group members identify all the implicit and
explicit assumptions central to the proposals.
4. Then each alternative is broken into subgroups to study all the pros and cons of the
proposals in the light of a problem.
5. Once these steps are completed individually, the group members meet and decide on a
proposal to be chosen on the basis of its ultimate results (pros and cons).
Thus, through a dialectic decisions method, every group member participates equally in finding
out the most promising alternative proposal in the context of a given problem.