Individual Versus Group decision making

You are perhaps aware that in recent times most of the decisions in any large organisation are usually taken by a group of people (e.g., Board of Directors, Committees, Task-force etc.) rather than by a single individual manager, however, brilliant, bright or powerful the manager may be. Perhaps from your own experience, you are also aware of some of the obvious advantages and disadvantages of group decision making like the ones given below : 

Advantages 

1. Groups can accumulate more knowledge and facts. 
2. Groups have a broader perspective and consider more alternative solutions. 
3. Individuals who participate in decisions are more satisfied with the decision and are more likely to support it. 
4. Group decision processes serve an important communication function as well as a useful political function. 

Disadvantages 

1. Groups often work more slowly than individuals. 
2. Group decision involves considerable compromise which may lead to less than optimal decisions. 
3. Groups are often dominated by one individual or a small clique, thereby negating many of the virtues of group procedures. 
4. Over-reliance on group decision making can inhibit management's ability to act quickly and decisively when necessary. 

Looking at this kind of a balance-sheet on group decision making, you may well ask whether, on the whole, groups are superior to individuals as far as the decision making effectiveness is concerned. It is not possible to give a categorical answer without reference to the nature of the people, the nature of the group and the context ill which the group is making a decision. However, what we how about the impact of the groups in decision making process has been summarized by Harrison (1975) in the following way : 

In establishing objectives, groups are typically superior to individuals in that they possess greater cumulative knowledge to bring to bear on problems. 

In Identifying alternatives, individual efforts are important to ensure that different and perhaps unique solutions are identified from various functional areas that later can be considered by the group. 

In evaluating alternatives, group judgement is often superior to individual judgement because it brings into play a wider range of viewpoints. 

In choosing an alternative., involving group members often leads to greater acceptance of the final outcome. 

In implementing the choice, individual responsibility is generally superior to group responsibility. Regardless of whether decisions are made individually or collectively, individuals perform better in carrying out the decision than groups do. 

As you can well see, groups do have some edge over individuals in certain stages of the decision making process. For this reason, you have to 'decide'  to what extent you should involve others (particularly, your subordinates in the work group) to participate in decision affecting their jobs. In fact, you have to take a position on the continuum of degrees of participation in decision making (see Figure ). 

 Continuum & Degrees of Participation in Decision Making

Based on a series of studies on managerial decisions making behavior, Groom and Yetton (1973) found evidences in support of the following propositions :  

1. Managers tend to be more participative when the quality of the decision is important. 
2. Managers tend to be more participative when subordinate acceptance of the decision is critical for its effective implementation. 
3. Managers tend to be more participative when they trust their subordinates to focus on organisational rather than personal goals and when conflict among subordinates is minimal. 
4. Managers tend to be less participative when they have all the necessary information to make a high quality decision. 
5. Managers tend to be less participative when the immediate problem is well structured or where there is a common solution that has been applied in similar situations in the past. 
6. Managers tend to be less participative when time is limited and immediate action is required. 

At this juncture, it will be useful for you to be aware of two phenomena which have been observed in group decision making situations. Technically these two phenomena, which are sometimes experienced in a group decision situation, are referred to as 'Risky shift phenomenon' and 'Group think'.