MGTS1601 Lecture Notes - Lecture 17: Social Loafing, Group Cohesiveness, Groupthink
Lecture 17 - Group Decision Making
Why Use Groups?
● There are a number of reasons for using groups to make organizational decisions:
■ Decision quality Improves
■ Decision acceptance and commitment Increases
■ Diffusion of responsibility
○ Do Groups Actually Make Higher-Quality Decisions than Individuals?
■ Is the frequent use of groups to make decisions warranted by
evidence?
■ Groups usually produce more and better solutions to problems than
do individuals working alone.
■ Do Groups Actually Make Higher-Quality Decisions than Individuals?
● Groups should perform better than individuals when:
■ The group members differ in relevant skills and abilities, as long as
they do not differ so much that conflict occurs.
■ Some division of labour can occur.
■ Memory for facts is an important issue.
■ Individual judgments can be combined by weighting them to reflect
the expertise of the various members.
● Build a Tower, Build a Team
○ Tom Wujec presents some surprisingly deep research into the "marshmallow
problem" -- a simple team-building exercise that involves dry spaghetti, one
yard of tape and a marshmallow.
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
● Goups usefully ake ette deisios. A goup is est he people ae’t
competing to be of power/ in charge.
Disadvantages of Group Decision Making
● There are a number of potential disadvantages to group decision making:
■ Time
■ Conflict
■ Domination
■ Groupthink
○ Groupthink
■ People tend to conform with group decisions from others to avoid
feeling outcast or lead to errors in decision making.
■ Factors that can cause groupthink include:
● High group cohesiveness.
● Strong identification with the group.
● Concern for approval from the group.
● Isolation of the group from other sources of information.
● The promotion of a particular decision by the group leader
(this appears to be the strongest cause).
○ Groupthink Symptoms
■ Illusion of invulnerability
■ Rationalization
■ Illusion of morality
■ Stereotypes of outsiders
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
