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Individual Versus Group Decision Making

Administrative, ethical, and strategic decisions are often made through a group process, with individuals then empowered to make subsequent decisions. Economic and new product decisions involve a group outlining options and an individual making the final call. Marketing decisions are best made by a group with an individual specialist implementing the plan. When deciding between group and individual decision making, considerations include the time available, resources, and whether a policy or diverse perspectives are needed. Groups have advantages like diverse expertise and input legitimacy, but can also be slower and prone to issues like groupthink.

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740 views2 pages

Individual Versus Group Decision Making

Administrative, ethical, and strategic decisions are often made through a group process, with individuals then empowered to make subsequent decisions. Economic and new product decisions involve a group outlining options and an individual making the final call. Marketing decisions are best made by a group with an individual specialist implementing the plan. When deciding between group and individual decision making, considerations include the time available, resources, and whether a policy or diverse perspectives are needed. Groups have advantages like diverse expertise and input legitimacy, but can also be slower and prone to issues like groupthink.

Uploaded by

cstraubel7507
Copyright
© Attribution Non-Commercial (BY-NC)
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as DOC, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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INDIVIDUAL VERSUS GROUP DECISION MAKING

Often times the amount of time required for a decision determines whether a group or
individual decision process is applied. Availability of resources and individual time
commitments are concerns as well.

Administrative decisions are often dictated by organizational models and internal policies
and procedures. These decisions are often best decided by individuals once the policy
has been set. Setting these policies requires a group effort but often it is an external
group effort with legal advice dictating the processes and overseeing the language used.

Ethical decisions are often addressed in a group setting without regards to time
constraints. A diverse panels of experts may be consulted.

Strategic decisions are often made best made in a group setting or groups outline possible
solutions with another group actually making the final decision based upon group
findings. Particular individuals may then be empowered to make subsequent decisions
consistent with the mission, purpose, goals, etc of the strategic plan.

Economic decisions are often made by one individual based upon the findings of a
particular group or department with an expertise in this arena. Budgets assigned may
dictate subsequent decision levels and individuals are then empowered for the decision
making process based upon budget policies decided and implemented by the group.

New product or service decisions are often made by groups of multi-talented individuals
with a diversity of background information and research available. Task forces may be
appointed in different areas of concerns with project managers assigned and empowered
to make individual decisions based upon the outline of the new product or service.

Marketing decisions are best made by groups with the final draft of requirements usually
assigned to one marketing individual who specializes in a particular market or industry.
This individual is then empowered in the decision making process and moves forward
with following an individual decision making process.

A. The following points (concerns) outline the dynamics of group decision


making:
1) Representation of problems, displays, and data
i. Group problem representation may different and when in a group,
problem representation may be appropriate for one person, but not
another.
ii. Groups need to negotiate a common representation of the problem.
2) Coordinating the cost of working in a group
i. Group members make decisions at all phases in collaborative
decision-making.
ii. Need to choose roles, common strategy, way to interpret results
iii. group pace may be limited by its slowest member
1. In contrast the speed at which a problem is solvable may be
deemed by the quickest member to find a solution
iv. Social status: person deemed the expert can affect the decision
making process
v. Groups tend to make riskier decision that individuals
vi. Group polarization - biases are amplified by group discussion
3) Cognitive style of the group
i. May be dictated by many factors including the style of the leader,
the dominate style among group members, and limited by
cognitive styles of group members
B. Advantages of using groups versus individuals:
1) Availability and diversity of members’ skills, knowledge, and expertise;
2) Enhanced memory for facts;
3) Capability of error detection; and
4) Greater decision acceptance.
C. Disadvantages of group decision making:
1) Time it takes to make a decision
2) Groupthink
3) Diffusion of responsibility
4) Group polarization
5) Potential for conflict.

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