Group Decision-Making Techniques

A group decision-making technique is a strategy for structuring group members’ interactions to enhance the quality of a collective decision over individual decision making. It is a set of rules or procedures that specify the process members should follow when contributing to a decision pertaining to their group.

[Page 574]An effective group decision is characterized by a full use of members’ resources, an efficient use of time, and a high-quality outcome. A number of group process deficiencies or roadblocks can hinder one or more aspects of effectiveness. For example, group members may withhold critical input because they do not want to interrupt another person (i.e., production blocking), feel apprehensive about being evaluated by other group members, have been interrupted by another person such as a domineering ...