Unit -V

Decision Making Skills

Meaning
Decision making is the process of making choices by identifying a decision, gathering
information, and assessing alternative resolutions.
According to Koontz and O’Donnel, “Decision-making is the actual selection from
among alternatives of a course of action.”
Decision-making skills show your proficiency in choosing between two or more
alternatives. You can make decisions once you process all the information available to
you and speak with the right points of contact involved in a certain situation. Overall,
it's important to identify processes that help you make the right decision on behalf of
the organization and make a concerted effort to uncover biases that may affect the
outcome of it.

Decision Making Process

Using a step-by-step decision-making process can help you make more deliberate,
thoughtful decisions by organizing relevant information and defining alternatives. This
approach increases the chances that you will choose the most satisfying alternative
possible.
Step 1: Identify the decision
You realize that you need to make a decision. Try to clearly define the nature of the
decision you must make. This first step is very important.
Step 2: Gather relevant information
Collect some pertinent information before you make your decision: what information is
needed, the best sources of information, and how to get it. This step involves both
internal and external “work.” Some information is internal: you’ll seek it through a
process of self-assessment. Other information is external: you’ll find it online, in books,
from other people, and from other sources.
Step 3: Identify the alternatives
As you collect information, you will probably identify several possible paths of action,
or alternatives. You can also use your imagination and additional information to
construct new alternatives. In this step, you will list all possible and desirable
alternatives.
Step 4: Weigh the evidence
Draw on your information and emotions to imagine what it would be like if you carried
out each of the alternatives to the end. Evaluate whether the need identified in Step 1
would be met or resolved through the use of each alternative. As you go through this
difficult internal process, you’ll begin to favor certain alternatives: those that seem to
have a higher potential for reaching your goal. Finally, place the alternatives in a
priority order, based upon your own value system.
Step 5: Choose among alternatives
Once you have weighed all the evidence, you are ready to select the alternative that
seems to be best one for you. You may even choose a combination of alternatives. Your
choice in Step 5 may very likely be the same or similar to the alternative you placed at
the top of your list at the end of Step 4.
Step 6: Take action
You’re now ready to take some positive action by beginning to implement the
alternative you chose in Step 5.
Step 7: Review your decision & its consequences
In this final step, consider the results of your decision and evaluate whether or not it has
resolved the need you identified in Step 1. If the decision has not met the identified
need, you may want to repeat certain steps of the process to make a new decision. For
example, you might want to gather more detailed or somewhat different information or
explore additional alternatives.

Decision making in Groups

Group decisions may involve assimilating a huge amount of information, exploring
many different ideas, and drawing on many strands of experience.
And the consequences of the right or wrong decision may be profound for the team and
the organization.
For obvious reasons, decisions made in groups can vary considerably from those
undertaken by individuals. It is this potential divergence in outcomes that make group
decision making attractive.
Group decision-making is a situation faced when individuals collectively choose from
the alternatives before them.
The decision is then no longer attributable to any single individual who is a member of
the group. All the individuals and social group processes, such as social influence,
contribute to the outcome.
The decisions made by groups are often different from those made by individuals.
There is much debate as to whether this difference results in decisions that are better or
worse.
According to the idea of synergy, decisions made collectively tend to be more effective
than decisions made by a single individual. Factors that impact other social group
behaviors also affect group decisions.
Moreover, when individuals make decisions as part of a group, there is a tendency to
exhibit a bias towards discussing shared information (i.e., shared information bias)
instead of unshared information.

Figure:Advantages and Disadvantages of Different Levels of Decision

Making

Individual Decision Making Group Decision Making

Pros Cons Pros Cons

Typically faster than Diversity of ideas

group decision Fewer ideas and can piggyback Takes longer
making on others’ ideas

Best individual in a
Identifying the Greater Group dynamics
group usually
best individual commitment to such as groupthink
outperforms the
can be challenging ideas can occur
group

Possible to put off Social loafing–

Interaction can be
Accountability is making decisions harder to identify
fun and serves as a
easier to determine if left alone to do responsibility for
teambuilding task
it decisions

Advantages of Group Decision Making

Group decision making provides two advantages over decisions made by individuals:
synergy and sharing of information.
Synergy is the idea that the whole is greater than the sum of its parts. When a group
makes a decision collectively, its judgment can be keener than that of any of its
members.
Group members can identify more complete and robust solutions and
recommendations through discussion, questioning, and collaboration. The sharing of
information among group members is another advantage of the group decision-making
process.
Group decisions take into account a broader scope of information since each group
member may contribute unique information and expertise.
Sharing information can increase understanding, clarify issues, and facilitate movement
toward a collective decision.

Disadvantages of Group Decision Making

Diffusion of Responsibility
One possible disadvantage of group decision making is that it can create a diffusion of
responsibility that results in a lack of accountability for outcomes. In a sense, if
everyone is responsible for a decision, then no one is.
Moreover, group decisions can make it easier for members to deny personal
responsibility and blame others for bad decisions.
Lower Efficiency
Group decisions can also be less efficient than those made by an individual. Group
decisions can take additional time because there is the requirement of participation,
discussion, and coordination among group members.
Without good facilitation and structure, meetings can be considered in trivial details
that may matter a lot to one person but not to the others.
Strengths of Group Decision Making
Groups generate more complete information and knowledge.
By aggregating the resources of several individuals, groups bring more input into the
decision process.
In addition to more input, groups can bring heterogeneity to the decision process. They
offer increased diversity of views.
A group will almost always outperform even the best individual. So, groups generate
higher quality decisions.
Finally, groups lead to increase acceptance of solutions. Many decisions fail after the
final choice is made because people don’t accept the solution. Group members who
participated in making a decision are likely to support the decision and encourage
others to accept it enthusiastically.
Weaknesses of Group Decision Making
Group decisions are time-consuming, and they typically take more time to reach a
solution than making the decision alone.
Group decisions have conformity pressures in groups. The desire by group members to
be accepted and considered an asset to the group can result in squashing any overt
disagreement.
Group decision can be dominated by one or a few members. If this dominated coalition
is composed of low and medium ability members, the group’s overall effectiveness will
suffer.
Finally, group decisions suffer from ambiguous responsibility. In an individual
decision, it’s clear who is accountable for the final outcome. In a group decision, the
responsibility of any single member is watered down.

Group Decision Making Techniques

Managers in organizations often need to take the decision based on consensus. They
need members of a team to discuss debate and decide on a mutually agreeable
conclusion.
Though group decision making is a powerful technique it has its own disadvantages as
it is time-consuming. Members may be unclear about their roles and if not handled
well, there could be some bitter feelings between the members. Nevertheless, its
advantages are more than the possible disadvantages.
As all the members are involved in the process, it is likely to be accepted easily and
members would be more willing and abiding by the decision taken. Besides, there could
be more generation of ideas with more information flow.
So, how can managers facilitate a productive group decision-making process?
isted below are a few techniques that can assist managers in their efforts towards
arranging a meeting for the purpose of group decision making.
There are a few techniques of group decision making.

Types of group decision-making techniques are:

Brainstorming.
Nominal Group Technique.
Electronic Meeting.
Multi-Voting.
Delphi Method.

Brainstorming
Brainstorming is a process for developing creative solutions to problems. This technique
was developed by Alex Osborn a partner in an agency. It is a popular method for
encouraging creative thinking in groups of about 8 people.
Alex Faickney Osborn, an advertising manager, popularized the method in 1953 in his
book, Applied Imagination. Ten years later, he proposed that teams could double their
creative output with brainstorming.
Simply brainstorming is meant to overcome pressures for conformity in the interacting
group that retard the development of creative alternatives.
It is built around four basic guidelines for participants:
Generate as many ideas as possible.
Be creative, freewheeling, and imaginative.
Build upon, extend, or combine earlier ideas.
Withhold criticism of others’ ideas.
It is a combination of group problem solving and discussions. It works on the belief that
the more the number of ideas, the greater the possibility of having a solution to the
problem that is acceptable to all. It starts with the group generating ideas which are
then analyzed, with action points based on the discussions.
Brainstorming works by focusing on a problem, and then deliberately coming up with
as many solutions as possible and by pushing the ideas as far as possible.
One of the reasons it is so effective is that the brainstormers come up with new ideas in
a session and spark off from associations with other people’s ideas by developing and
refining them.
Nominal Group Technique
Another technique is the nominal group technique (NGT), which involves problem
identification, solution generation, and decision making.
The nominal group technique restricts discussion or interpersonal communication
during the decision-making process, hence, the term nominal. Group members are all
physically present, as in a traditional committee meeting, but members operate
independently. Specifically, a problem is presented and then the following steps take
place:
Members meet as a group but, before any discussion takes place, each member
independently writes down his or her ideas on the problem.
After this silent period, each member presents one idea to the group. Each member
takes his or her turn, presenting a single idea until all ideas have been presented and
recorded. No discussion takes place until all the ideas have been recorded.
The group now discusses the ideas for clarity and evaluates them.
Each group member silently and independently rank-orders the ideas. The idea with
the highest aggregate ranking determines the final decision.
The chief advantage of the nominal group technique is that it permits the group to meet
formally but does not restrict independent thinking, as does the interacting group.
It’s the method of tallying and coming to a resultant.conclusion that sets the nominal
group technique apart from other methods.
The initial stage of the technique gives each individual a chance to state his opinion on
the solution. He’s also allowed to elaborate slightly with a brief accompanying
explanation about why he chose the way he did.
Duplicate solutions are then eliminated from the pool, leaving only original solutions
behind. The individuals then rank the remaining solutions according to numerical
preference, and all of these preferences are tallied and considered to render the most
accurate results.

Electronic Meeting
The most recent approach to group decision making blends the nominal group
technique with sophisticated computer technology.
It’s called the computer-assisted group or electronic meeting. It is a meeting in which
members interact by a computer, allowing for anonymity of comments and aggregating
votes.
Once the technology is in place, the concept is simple. Issues are presented to the
participants, and they typed their responses into their computer screen. Individual
comments, as well as aggregated votes, are displayed on a projection screen.
The major advantages of electronic meetings are mystery, honesty, and speed.
Multi-Voting
It starts with a number of rounds of voting where an individual casts his/her vote for
the shortlisted options. Each individual can cast one vote at a time.
In this way, the options favoring the maximum number of votes are carried to the next
round.
This process is repeated until a clear winning option is obtained.
Delphi Method
In this method of decision making, the facilitator allows team members to brainstorm
their ideas and submit their ideas “anonymously individually.” The other team
members do not know the owner of the pictures.
The facilitator then collects all the inputs and circulates them among others for
modifying or improving them. This process continues until a final decision is made.
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