Group Decision Making

Group Decision Making

1. GROUP DECISION MAKING Department of Electronics and Telecommunication Subject: Psychology

2. STRENGTH AND WEAKNESS OF GROUP DECISION MAKING MAUSAMI (SETB115) SANDHYA AWARI (SETB116)

3. GROUP DECISION MAKING A group of individual gather to tackle a problem and find its solution.

4. Group decision making Strengths Weakness Synergy Sharing of information Degree of involvement Development of Groupthink Dominance of a particular member or group of members A time consuming process

5. Strengths Synergy : its the ability to utilize many minds to develop a multitude of ideas , leading to a high quality solution. Sharing of information: Each member of the group holds specific and unique organisation that , when combined together , makes for an overall educated, quality decision. Degree of involvement: The members of a group feel involved with a given problem. This minimizes their resistance. It strengthens an organisation and facilitates decision-making.

6. Weakness Groupthink : This is a process where the judgement ,mental activity , and effectiveness of the group’s decision making is hampered by pressures from the group. Dominance of a particular member or group of members: Many a times decision are dominated by a few people from the group and other members don't get chance to speak their views. A time consuming process: Groups typically take more time to reach a solution as compared to an individual as discussions and arguments on various points are involved.

7. Harinakshi Kumbhare (SETB120) Chaitanya Deshpande (SETB119 ) Group Decision Making Techniques

8. Brainstorming Nominal Group technique Electronic Meeting Interacting Groups The Techniques are:

9. Process of getting creative ideas and solutions through intensive and free-wheeling group discussion Brainstorming

10. Nominal Group Technique Nominal group technique is a structured method for group brainstorming that encourages contributions from everyone

11. A meeting in which members interact on computers, allowing for anonymity of comments and aggregation of votes Electronic Meeting

12. Interacting group technique is the widely used method of having team members have an unstructured discussion in the form of oral, written and non-verbal communication of the problem Interacting Groups

13. Group Shift And Group Think Omkar Rane (SETB118) Nikhil Patil (SETB117)

14. There is a major difference between group discussion, group decision making, groupthink and group shift. In order to maintain a well-functioning group, one should encourage group discussions and collaborative decision making but in the same place should try to eliminate groupthink and group shift. It sounds a bit confusing now but by the end of this chapter we will get a clear idea about these three topics. Group Think Group Shift

15. Sometimes we feel like speaking up in a meeting, classroom, or informal group, but decide against it. Why? Mainly due to shyness, or we may have been victim of groupthink. Groupthink, a term coined by social psychologist Irving Janis (1972), occurs when a group makes faulty decisions because group pressures lead to a deterioration of “mental efficiency, reality testing, and moral judgment” .  Groups affected by groupthink ignore alternatives and tend to take irrational actions that dehumanize other groups.   A group is especially vulnerable to groupthink when its members are similar in background, when the group is insulated from outside opinions, and when there are no clear rules for decision making.   Groupthink

16. Irving Janis lists  eight  specific symptoms of a group undergoing Groupthink: Illusion of Invulnerability Experts in a group will feel that nothing can go wrong after making a decision, because they "are the best" and therefore the decision they made cannot go wrong. Belief in Inherent Morality of the Group Experts in a group will believe that the decisions they are making will be morally correct. Collective Rationalization Members discount warnings that their thinking may be irrational. Out-group Stereotypes The members will all have the same stereotype of the problem. Self-Censorship When a specific expert is asked what to do about a problem, the expert will not give an answer directly contradicting the group's wishes. Illusion of Unanimity Even if some individuals of the group privately do not consent to the decision made, the individual will not speak out. The individual's silence will then be perceived as consent. Direct Pressure on Dissenters If an individual does speak out against the will of the majority of the group, all other members will attempt to quell the "dissident". Self-Appointed Mind guards: The leader of the group of experts will refuse to hear any argument contradicting his own wishes or the will of the majority.

17. Some real world examples of groupthink The Bay of Pigs invasion. An invasion was planned by the Eisenhower administration, but accepted by the Kennedy administration without question when they took over. The administration ignored questions and accepted stereotypes about the Cubans without questioning whether the Central Intelligence Agency information made sense. Which further resulted in assassination of former U.S president John F Kennedy. The bombing of Pearl Harbor. Many of the senior officers at Pearl Harbor did not take warnings from Washington DC about potential invasion seriously despite the fact that Japanese messages had been intercepted. Those who didn't take action believed that the Japanese wouldn't dare to attempt an assault against the U.S. because they would recognize the futility of war with the United States. 

18. Group Shift

19. In balancing group decisions with the individual decisions of members within the group, evidence hints that there are differences. In some cases, the group decisions are more timid than the individual decisions. More often, the shift is close to greater risk. What appears to happen in groups is that the discussion results in a significant shift in a position of members towards a more extreme position in the direction in which they were already leaning before the discussion. So conservative types become more cautious and the more intrusive types take on more risk. The group discussion tends to fabricate the initial position of the group. Group shift is the phenomena in which individual decisions make way for exaggerated group decisions. Group shift can be seen as a special case of groupthink. The decision of the group shows the dominant decision-making norm that is developed during the group’s discussion. Whether the shift in the group’s decision is towards greater deliberation or more risk depends on the dominant pre-discussion norm. The greater episode of the shift towards risk has generated several explanations for the phenomenon. It has been argued, for instance, that the discussion creates familiarization between members. As they become more comfortable with each other, they also become more bold, confident and daring. Group decisions free any single individual from accountability for the group’s final choice. Greater risk can be taken as even if the decision fails, no single individual can be held wholly responsible. Group Shift

20. Thank You