Chapter Eleven: Decision Making

1
Chapter Eleven Decision Making

• William P. Wattles, Ph. D.
• Francis Marion University

2
(No Transcript)
3
Decision Making

• Decision making, when a collaborative activity,
  involves generating information and processing
  the information through discussion.

4
Remembering Information

• Collective memory, a groups combined memory,
  exceeds that of an individual.

5
Decision Making and information

• Two heads are better than one because two heads
  can store more information.

6
Transactive Memory systems

• For efficiency information is divided up.

7
Cross-cuing

• Members give each other cues to improve
  remembering.

8
Group Decision Making

• Social decision scheme
• The process by which group input results in a
  decision.

9
Truth Wins rule

• Works best for eureka type problems.
• Id know it if I heard it.
• Works if
• Someone knows the answer
• And can sell it to the group

10
Majority Rules Model

• Any decision favored by more than 50 of members
  will be the groups decision.

11
Delegating decisions

• Individual or subgroup makes decision
• Dictatorship
• Oligarchy

12
Delegating decisions

• Dictatorship
• One person makes the final decision
• Oligarchy
• A coalition of powerful individuals within the
  group makes the decision.

13
Averaging Individual inputs

• Average of group rankings.

14
Voting

• Majority or 2/3 rule.

15
Consensus

• Discussion lasts until group reaches a unanimous
  result.

16
Problems in group decisions

• Hidden profile-best answer unknown to group due
  to unshared information.
• Unshared information still influences judgments

17
Risky Shift Phenomenon

• The tendency of groups to make riskier decisions
  than individuals.

18
Cautious Shift

• When groups choose a less risky course of action
  than individuals

19
Group Polarization Hypothesis

• Group judgments will be more extreme than
  individual judgments.

20
Value Hypothesis

• People change their view to be consistent with
  the group.

21
Groupthink

• A strong concurrence-seeking tendency that
  interferes with group decision activity.
• Example Kennedy and Bay of Pigs invasion.

22
Symptoms of Groupthink

• Interpersonal pressure
• Self-censorship
• Mindguards
• Apparent unanimity

23
Symptoms of Groupthink

• Illusions of invulnerability
• Illusions of Morality
• End justifies the means
• Biased perceptions of the outgroup
• Defective decision making strategies.

24
Causes of Groupthink

• Cohesiveness
• Isolation
• Insulated from criticism
• Leadership
• Formal,
• Decisional Stress
• insecure

25
Preventing Groupthink

• No norm of conformity allowed to develop
• Rules of discussion suspended
• Agendas avoided
• New ideas welcomed

26
Preventing Groupthink

• Kennedy refused to state his personal beliefs
• Required full pro and con discussion
• Encouraged criticism
• Arranged meetings without him
• Encouraged devils advocate

27
The End