Group practices (Essay Sample)

Running Head: GROUP PRACTICES
Group practices
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Introduction
Group decision making is the making of decisions in groups that comprise of multiple members. Group decision making is faced with the challenge of putting the considerations of all the opinions given by the different individuals and coming up with the decision the group should take (Lu, 2007). Group decision making has been seen to bring out the hidden strengths and potentials of its members. This paper will look at the benefits of decision making by looking at the major categories of decision making. Decision making in groups helps in coming up with a good long term decisions. It will focus on a sales team group that I belong to and how this group has utilized group decision making to help in their decisions on how to market new products. Ineffective decisions once made by this group will be discussed by looking at the disastrous decisions that might be caused by group cohesion. A conclusion is then reached following the advantages and the benefits of group decision making.
Decision-Making Methods
Brainstorming
Brainstorming engages the group members verbally proposing ideas or complementary courses of action. The session of brainstorming is normally unstructured. The position at hand is usually explained in depth so that all the members have a clear understanding of the problem or issue. The facilitator of the group or the group leader, usually records the ideas proposed of a marker board. The stage involving the generation of alternatives is well differentiated from the stage of alternative evaluation because group members are not permitted to evaluate views until all the ideas from the group members have been presented. As soon as all the ideas from the members of the group have been exhausted, the evaluation process by the group members then begins. The various suggestions presented by the group members are evaluated. Brainstorming is a good method for generating alternatives, but does not give much when it comes to evaluation of the alternatives presented or the assortment of an anticipated course of action. This method is mostly used by sales team when we need to identify the new products in the market. Each member brainstorms what he or she thinks can be done to introduce a new product to the market. Various marketing methods are later suggested by the team, and a decision is reached (Swap, 1984).
The problem with the brainstorming method is that regardless of the prohibition against judging the group members’ ideas until they have all given their views, some individuals of the group may be hesitant to give their ideas because they are afraid of being judged or ridiculed by other members of the group. Although electronic brainstorming has been used in the recent years, allowing members to propose ideas via e-mail or the online discussion room, members would give their ideas anonymously thus increasing the chances of individuals giving good ideas without fear of ridicule and judgment from others.
Dialetical inquiry
This is a technique in group decision making that concentrates on making sure that there is maximum consideration of alternatives. Basically, it entails segregating the group into opposing sides. These sides debate on the merits and the demerits of the different decisions and solutions proposed. This technique is made to ensure that the group looks at all the potential ramifications of its conclusion. This method has always been effective in my group as it always ensures that all the potential marketing methods have been analyzed, and the new products are well introduced to the market.
Nominal Group technique
This is a structured process of decision making whereby the members of the group are expected to invent a complete list of the ideas that they have proposed in writing. The ideas of the group members are usually recorded privately. When the recording is done, each group member is individually asked to give one point from their list until they exhaust all the alternatives and ideas. These ideas are then recorded on a marker board. The verbal exchanges at this stage of the process are only bound clarification requests. When all the proposals have publicly been listed, the group is involved in a discussion of the alternatives listed, which ends in some rating form in the order of their preference. Empirical research carried out on group decision making gives some evidence that the nominal group technique is successful in generating a larger number of alternatives on decisions that are comparatively of high quality (Swap, 1984).
Delphi technique
This is a group decision making process that can be utilized by decision-making groups especially when each individual member of the group is in a different location. The Delphi technique was worked out at the Rand Corporation. The Delphi group members are usually selected due to their exclusive knowledge of the problem or issue they have. Each member is independently asked to give alternative solutions to the problem to be decided in successive stages. At the end of every stage in the process, the other group members are allowed to ask questions and the alternatives provided are then tanked in some fashion. After an unclear number of rounds, the group finally reaches an agreement on the decision to be made. This method has not been employed by my group as we are all from the same area and also our area of expertise is in marketing. This means that all the members in the group are experts, and none of the members has exclusive knowledge.
The sub components of the methods of group decision making
There are several sub components of decision making methods that help in solving of problems and implementing of solutions. Decision by authority is one of these methods where the group comes up with ideas and carries out open discussions although the final decision is made by one person (Cassidy, 1999). This is very fast and appropriate especially when there is an expert in the problem of discussion. This method does not, however, maximize the potentials of every individual in the group and may implement a decision made by only one member of the group. Decision by majority is another method where a group votes on a specific issue after a discussion period. This method is also fast as it uses the democratic participation during the process. There is decision by negative minority where the group votes for the less popular idea and then eliminates it. This is dome repeatedly until only one idea is left. This is very democratic and useful when there are only few voters but many ideas. Decision by ranking is where the members of the group the top five ideas that they most prefer and then rank them on a rank of 1-5. The idea with the highest vote is then settled on. This method gives the satisfaction that the decision chosen represents each individual member of the group. Decision by unanimity is where all the group members agree that the decision settled on is the best one. Decision by consensus is where the decision reached is discussed further until everyone affected by it understands and agrees with what will be done (Lu, 2007). A consensus may be difficult to be achieved, and this may take a longer time. Combining ideas is a method where the group looks for ways of combining and implementing all the ideas given by the members into one solution. In this method, the implementation process may take a longer time because many ideas are being considered.
In order to make effective decisions, my group employs brainstorming, and the nominal group technique to make effective decisions on how to market new products. Brainstorming especially helped us when we needed to come up with the brand name of our sales team. To come up with the brand of a company requires a lot of creativeness and the brainstorming method served us right as it gave each member of the group an opportunity to present their views and opinions.
Characteristics of effective group decisions
The group decision making process involves the identification of the decision to be reached, analyzing the problem to be discussed, establishing the criteria for the discussion, brainstorming of the possible solutions, evaluation and selection of the best option, implementing the solution and monitoring and evaluation of the result. Effective group decisions always take time to achieve its purpose, process and performance and the group members always remain interested, involved and always listen to each other. Most decisions that are reached are always done through a genuine consensus, and the task of the group is well understood by the members of the group and when a decision is reached, all the members are certain ...