a comparison of three group decision-mak.rar

A COMPARISON OF THREE GROUP DECISION-MAKING STRATEGIES AND THEIR EFFECTS ON THE GROUP DECISION-MAKING PROCESS
Degree PhD
Department Career & Technical Education
Advisory Committee Advisor Name Title
K. Kurt Eschenmann Committee Chair
Daisy L. Stewart Committee Member
Patrick A. O'Reilly Committee Member
W. Kevin Baker Committee Member
William T. Price, Jr. Committee Member

Keywords Group
Consensus
Structure
Decision
Conflict

1
CHAPTER I
Introduction
Background
The primary goal shared by everyone faced with having to solve complex and
important problems is a desire to make and execute the best possible decision. While
decision making is a practice that everyone is familiar with to varying degrees from daily
life experience, it is a process in which most individuals rely on informal versus formal
systematic strategies to solve complex problems (Fox & Kolcaba, 1995; Tagliere, 1992).
The decision-making process can be performed at either an individual or group level.
Individual-level decision making is best suited for problems (a) which have few viable
alternatives, (b) are noncomplex, and (c) the individual making the decision has all the
knowledge and skill needed to solved the problem. Group-level decision making is best
when (a) the problem is complex in nature, (b) when there are multiple alternatives from
which to select to solve the problem, and (c) decision quality is of paramount importance
(Robbins, 1997).
The current trend in organizational decision making is focused on the use of
groups, rather than solo individuals, to make and execute important and complex
organizational decisions (Caudron, 1998; Garmston, 1999; McEwan, 1997; Putnam &
Stohl, 1996; Tubbs, 1996; Williams, 1993; Vann, 2000). The reliance on groups to make
important high stakes decisions found is not only in business and industry, but is popular
as well in all types of organizations from healthcare to public schools (e.g., Shared
Decision Making or SDM committees) (Vann, 2000). The focus of this investigation is
to compare three group-level decision strategies and the impact these techniques have on