Group Decision-Making (Essay Sample)

Group Decision-Making Student’s Name University Affiliation Course Number: Course Name Professor’s Name Date Group Decision-Making Introduction Group decision-making is an essential tool in the corporate world, with most decisions made by groups rather than individuals. The preference for group decision-making is influenced by its merits. A group can come up with more points of view and alternatives than an individual, thus increasing the diversity of solutions. Additionally, group decisions are viewed as more legitimate than individual decisions since the latter comprise the opinion of one person. Group-decision techniques such as brainstorming, the Delphi technique, and the nominal group technique have proved successful in organizational decision-making. Group Decision-Making: Making Technique Recommendation for Crisis The company’s crisis involves a loss of business due to the entry of new competitors into the market. With sales plummeting, the company must formulate creative ideas that will help it gain a competitive advantage in the market. Accordingly, the most appropriate group decision-making technique is brainstorming. The tool adopts an informal approach to help stakeholders come up with creative ideas (Mind Tools, n.d.). With the company in need of creative ideas, brainstorming would be the perfect tool. The open approach emphasized by brainstorming encourages the participation of all stakeholders, which would ensure the development of a large number of ideas. The company has no problem with the generation of ideas due to the introverted nature of top managers. The form of brainstorming that suits the company is group brainstorming. The alternative involves all team members, thus facilitating the development of ideas in great depth. Therefore, the top managers would help each other develop creative solutions that would help the company regains its position in the market. Concerns about the propensity of the company’s top managers to think conventionally could affect the quality of creativity in the brainstorming sessions. Therefore, using the rolestorming technique during brainstorming would help solve this problem. Group members would take the identities of other people. This would reduce their inhibitions, thus increasing their creativity. Creative ideas could include developing new products, rebranding existing products, or starting an advertisement campaign. After generating creative ideas, the top managers would take action through appropriate implementation. Group Decision-Making: Making Technique Recommendation for Cost-Cutting The company in this case study is inefficient, which is illustrated by cost overruns. While the priority is to make a decision that will enable cost-cutting, an important consideration is the lack of harmony in the top management. Meetings of go off-agenda due to personality differences between managers. The group decision-making technique should also be quick to further cost overruns. Accordingly, the most appropriate decision-making technique is the nominal group technique. The decision-making team in the nominal technique is usually small and focuses on providing systematic solutions to an impending problem (Sims, 2002). In the case study, the focus would focus on providing cost-cutting solutions. The nominal decision technique is suitable for the case because of how solutions are provided. If it were another group decision-making technique, the meeting could have turned into a shouting match, with extroverted managers trying to dominate their introverted peers. The nominal technique provides an orderly platform that ensures every member provides a solution. Each member writes solutions, which are then posted on a chart by the team leader. The solutions are then discussed, with each member being given a platform to explain their point of view. After the discussion and evaluation of all solutions, each member of the meeting ranks the solutions privately (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 2018). The solution which is ranked highest by most individuals is taken as the group decision. The involvement of each member throughout the decision-making process ensures that a few members cannot dominate proceedings. Quick decision-making is imperative in the case study. The nominal group technique is perfect for this because members do not have to agree with one another. In the Delphi technique, the meeting only ends once a consensus is met. This is not necessary for the nominal technique since members vote on solutions. Implementation of the top-ranked solution will enable the company to reduce its costs significantly. Group Decision-Making: Making Technique Recommendation for New System Software The last case study concerns a company that needs to purchase new software. The group responsible for making the decision consists of managers from overseas divisions. The geographical differences mean that face-to-face meetings are impossible. The managers are software experts so they have information about the different software options. Accordingly, the Delphi technique is appropriate for group decision-making in this case study. The technique involves facilitating the cooperation of experts so that they can reach an agreement about a potential solution. Experts are usually contacted remotely and invited to propose appropriate solutions to a problem. In the case study, the IT managers from the company’s overseas divisions would propose software options to replace the old system. A group leader shares responses with all experts and looks for a consensus. The consensus, in this case, would involve a decision about the optimal software system. In case participants fail to reach a consensus, they proceed to another round of produ...