Group decision-making (also known as collaborative decision-making or collective decision-making) is a situation faced when individuals collectively make a choice from the alternatives before them. The decision is then no longer attributable to any single individual who is a member of the group. This is because 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. In workplace settings, collaborative decision-making is one of the most successful models to generate buy-in from other stakeholders, build consensus, and encourage creativity. According to the idea of synergy, decisions made collectively also tend to be more effective than decisions made by a single individual. In this vein, certain collaborative arrangements have the potential to generate better net performance outcomes than individuals acting on their own. Under normal everyday conditions, collaborative or group decision-making would often be preferred and would generate more benefits than individual decision-making when there is the time for proper deliberation, discussion, and dialogue. This can be achieved through the use of committee, teams, groups, partnerships, or other collaborative social processes.
However, in some cases, there can also be drawbacks to this method. In extreme emergencies or crisis situations, other forms of decision-making might be preferable as emergency actions may need to be taken more quickly with less time for deliberation. On the other hand, additional considerations must also be taken into account when evaluating the appropriateness of a decision-making framework. For example, the possibility of group polarization also can occur at times, leading some groups to make more extreme decisions than those of its individual members, in the direction of the individual inclinations. There are also other examples where the decisions made by a group are flawed, such as the Bay of Pigs invasion, the incident on which the groupthink model of group decision-making is based.
Factors that impact other social group behaviours also affect group decisions. For example, groups high in cohesion, in combination with other antecedent conditions (e.g. ideological homogeneity and insulation from dissenting opinions) have been noted to have a negative effect on group decision-making and hence on group effectiveness. 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), as opposed to unshared information.
In psychology
The social identity approach suggests a more general approach to group decision-making than the popular groupthink model, which is a narrow look at situations where group and other decision-making is flawed. Social identity analysis suggests that the changes which occur during collective decision-making are part of rational psychological processes which build on the essence of the group in ways that are psychologically efficient, grounded in the social reality experienced by members of the group, and have the potential to have a positive impact on society.
Formal systems
Consensus decision-making Tries to avoid "winners" and "losers". Consensus requires that a majority approve a given course of action, but that the minority agree to go along with the course of action. In other words, if the minority opposes the course of action, consensus requires that the course of action be modified to remove objectionable features.
Voting-based methods Range voting lets each member score one or more of the available options. The option with the highest average is chosen. This method has experimentally been shown to produce the lowest Bayesian regret among common voting methods, even when voters are strategic. Majority requires support from more than 50% of the members of the group. Thus, the bar for action is lower than with unanimity and a group of "losers" is implicit to this rule. Plurality, where the largest block in a group decides, even if it falls short of a majority.
Delphi method Delphi method is a process of collective anonymous thought exchange using the form of correspondence. It has three characteristics that are clearly different from other expert prediction methods, namely anonymity, multiple feedback, and statistical responses of groups. Named after the Oracle of Delphi, it was developed in the 1950s by the American RAND Corporation, established by the Douglas Aircraft Company, as an effective and reliable method of collecting expert opinions and was widely used in commercial, military, educational, health care and other fields.
Three characteristics of Delphi method:
(i) Anonymity Since all members of the Group do not meet directly when this approach is used, they communicate by mail, thus eliminating the impact of the authority. This is the main feature of the method. Anonymity is a very important function of Delphi methods. Forecasters don't know each other. They exchanged ideas with complete anonymity.
(ii) Feedback This method requires 3 to 4 rounds of information feedback. In the hourly feedback, both the investigation team and the expert team can conduct in-depth research, so the final results can basically reflect the basic ideas of the experts and the understanding of the information. Therefore, the results are expensive and objective. Credible. Communication between team members is achieved by answering the organizer's questions, usually requiring multiple rounds of feedback to complete the prediction.
(iii) Statistics The most typical group prediction results reflect the views of the majority of people, and at most only the views of a few people are mentioned, but this does not indicate the state of the different views of the group. Each view is included in such statistical information, avoiding the shortcoming that the expert meeting methodology reflects only the majority view.
Dotmocracy A method that relies on the use of forms called "dotmocracy sheets" to allow large groups to brainstorm collectively and recognize agreement on an unlimited number of ideas they have authored.
Decision-making in social settings
Decision-making in groups is sometimes examined separately as process and outcome. Process refers to the group interactions. Some relevant ideas include coalitions among participants as well as influence and persuasion. The use of politics is often judged negatively, but it is a useful way to approach problems when preferences among actors are in conflict, when dependencies exist that cannot be avoided, when there are no super-ordinate authorities, and when the technical or scientific merit of the options is ambiguous.
In addition to the different processes involved in making decisions, group decision support systems (GDSSs) may have different decision rules. A decision rule is the GDSS protocol a group uses to choose among scenario planning alternatives.
Gathering Involves all participants acknowledging each other's needs and opinions and tends towards a problem solving approach in which as many needs and opinions as possible can be satisfied. It allows for multiple outcomes and does not require agreement from some for others to act. Sub-committee Involves assigning responsibility for evaluation of a decision to a sub-set of a larger group, which then comes back to the larger group with recommendations for action. Using a sub-committee is more common in larger governance groups, such as a legislature. Sometimes a sub-committee includes those individuals most affected by a decision, although at other times it is useful for the larger group to have a sub-committee that involves more neutral participants. Participatory Each participant has a say that is directly proportional to the degree that particular decision would affect the individual. Those not affected by a decision would have no say and those exclusively affected by a decision would have full say. Likewise, those most affected would have the most say while those least affected would have the least say.
Plurality and dictatorship are less desirable as decision rules because they do not require the involvement of the broader group to determine a choice. Thus, they do not engender commitment to the course of action chosen. An absence of commitment from individuals in the group can be problematic during the implementation phase of a decision.
There are no perfect decision-making rules. Depending on how the rules are implemented in practice and the situation, all of these can lead to situations where either no decision is made, or to situations where decisions made are inconsistent with one another over time.
Social decision schemes Sometimes, groups may have established and clearly defined standards for making decisions, such as bylaws and statutes. However, it is often the case that the decision-making process is less formal, and might even be implicitly accepted. Social decision schemes are the methods used by a group to combine individual responses to come up with a single group decision. There are a number of these schemes, but the following are the most common:
Delegation An individual, subgroup or external party makes the decision on behalf of the group. For instance, in an "authority scheme", the leader makes the decision or, in an oligarchy, a coalition of leading figures makes the decision. Averaging Each group member makes their own private and independent decision and all are later "averaged" to produce a decision. Elections Group members vote on their preferences, either privately or publicly. These votes are then used to select a decision, either by plurality, simple majority, supermajority or other more or less complicated criterion. Unanimity A consensus scheme whereby the group discusses the issue until it reaches a unanimous agreement. This decision rule is what dictates the decision-making for most juries. Random The group leaves the choice to chance. For example, picking a number between 1 and 10 or flipping a coin.
There are strengths and weaknesses to each of these social decision schemes. Delegation saves time and is a good method for less important decisions, but ignored members might react negatively. Averaging responses will cancel out extreme opinions, but the final decision might disappoint many members. Plurality is the most consistent scheme when superior decisions are being made, and it involves the least amount of effort. Voting, however, may lead to members feeling alienated when they lose a close vote, especially if the winner has less than half the votes, or to internal politics, or to conformity to other opinions. Consensus schemes involve members more deeply, and tend to lead to high levels of commitment. But, it might be difficult for the group to reach such decisions.
Normative model of decision-making