Small Group Decision Making and Functional Perspective Theory Randy Hirokawa and Dennis Gouran developed the Functional Perspective on Group Decision Making theory to “offer practical advice on how participants can act to ensure better group decisions” (Hirokawa, 1999, p. 170). They believe that as long as the members in a group care about the issue and are reasonably intelligent, the group interaction will have a positive effect on the final decision. In order for a group to reach a high-quality solution, Hirokawa and Gouran believe the group 's decision-making process needs to fulfill four task requirements they refer to as requisite functions of effective decision making. "Three core assumptions define the functional perspective: (1) groups are goal oriented; (2) group performance varies in quality and quantity, and can be evaluated; and (3) internal and external factors influence group performance via the interaction process.” (Wittenbaum, 2004 p. 19). In the problem analysis phase of effective decision making, group members should recognize any obstacle that may arise that needs to be improved or changed and determine the characteristics, magnitude, and possible cause(s) of that obstacle confronting them. This phase lays the groundwork for what the group should be prepared for as they work together (Hirokawa & Salazar, 1999 p. 170).After analyzing the problem, the group should then discuss and establish goals and objectives in order to generate proposed solutions of
The decision making process follows the same steps every time a decision is made. The first step is to analysis the problem presented thoroughly (Rossi, Picchi, Di Stefano, Marongiu, & Scarsini, 2015). Questions such as; what is the problem?, and why should the problem be solved? May need to be answered before the person engages in the
Decision-making in the workforce is a process of responsibilities used by upper management to implement, enforce rules, regulations, and maintain a successful environment. Decision-making implemented more effectively by making a plan, thinking it through, accepting more than one opinion and determining what is best. However, decision-making often utilized more effectively by opening doors of opportunities for a suggestion, question, discussion, and feedback. Although, more involvement helps improve understanding, utilize behavior skills and present opportunities for better communication. Everyday life consists of decision-making, the right decision may not always be applied, but ensure room for improvement and opportunity. Individuals approached decision-making in many different ways. As stated by (Jones, Graham, & Bateman, 2006) decision making is a procedure used to recognize a problem, weigh the alternatives and evaluate a solution in which, certain situations will require different approaches to become effective.
There are many factors altering group behavior and effectiveness, such as decision- making, cohesion and communication (Crocker, 2016). The later has also shown a positive relationship with group task cohesion (Smith et al., 2013), and methods of enhancing intrateam
To close the gap between actual and desired performance, decisions need to be made. Decision making involves making a selection from among alternative courses of action. Implementation and evaluation of the implementation provide feedback into the next cycle of group decision making.
Group communication follows slightly different ‘rules’ to communication in one-to-one situations. There is often more going on in a group, with a number of different people trying to speak, get their point across and their voice heard. Turn-taking can be more complicated; relationships and power issues between group members can also be more complex than in one-to-one contexts. As a communication context, groups can have a number of benefits for participants: • a group can be an effective way of sharing responsibilities • groups can improve decision-making and problem-solving because they draw on the knowledge and skills of a number of
Furthermore, research suggests that conflict in the decision making process promotes creativity amongst group members (Nemeth 1986), higher levels of commitment and satisfaction from group members (Peterson 1999), and group members become more knowledgeable about the interests of their co workers (Peterson 2007). In comparison to the first simulation, this result was evident in the second attempt. On the other hand, the decision making process was time consuming. Luckily, there were no time constraints, however, towards the end of the task, group members including myself, became tiresome and overworked. Eventually, I began to lose control of my group and those with the most useful information provided to them during the simulation began to
The decision making process can also be divided into seven steps, where the first step will basically involve defining the problem. These steps allow for the main issue to be identified, and therefore the manager should make sure that it has been done correctly. After the problem identification stage, we can move forward and identify the limiting factors, and in this the manager should make use of all resources available to do it the best way. Some of the resources include information, time, personnel, equipment and supplies. Using this, managers can be able to identify the factors that might hinder them from achieving their goals.
As people, when confronted with a problem where a solution must be found, our ideal situation is to come up with the best possible one. To do this, we ideally gather the most knowledgeable, intelligent individuals into a group and attempt to derive the best solution to the problem. With the collection of these people, one would think that finding the best possible answer to the problem would be a rather simple task. However, what has happened in many situations is the complete opposite. Rather than finding the best possible solutions, many ideal, cohesive groups arrive at the worst possible answer largely due to problems in communication within the group. This is what we call the radical theory of
Groupthink plays a huge role throughout his presidency because he was challenged to make critical, constructive decisions for his foreign policy. Before he made the decision to invade Cuba it created a conflict of interest, he was not alone in the decision, there were other groups of men who also have the same similarities of both backgrounds and personality. People are afraid to express their views on reality and how one person can dominate the discussion and impose their point of view that an individual can feel powerful and be effective on their own decision making processes. Janis describes what happens when a group of bad decisions come into play they feel too over confident that they lose contact with reality and have others feel excluded.
When doing so the other group members were active listener, by using their whole body verbally and nonverbal. Like facing the speaker and giving eye contact and try to avoided interruption. The group also acknowledges the thoughts of the speaker by giving constructive feed back. Due to the effectiveness of the group communication, we were able to build trust, respect and understand the issues and make decision for effective change. We illustrate this by coming together as a group one again to accomplish the goal we initially wanted to accomplish. Since the first organization that we had chosen was incorrect, so we had to make the necessary changes to accomplish our goals. The other effective feature is the purpose of the group. Kozier et al (2010) stated that the effective group purpose is when “goal, task, and outcomes are clarified. Understanding and modified so that members of the group can commit themselves to purposes through cooperation” (p.401). For instance, each individual was assign a task and knew what was to be accomplished. As group we all decided to meet at suitable day and time which was beneficial to all team members, because we could commit to the group and focus on what needed to be achieved.
The first step in the decision making process is to gather information about the problem. The best method to acquire this information is from the users through
First step in decision making process is identifying the problems. As McShane and Von Glinow (2000) stated, a problem can be
Thinking critically and making decisions are important parts of today’s business environment. It is important to understand how the decision making process works and the steps involved. The nine steps of the decision making process are: identifying the problem, defining criteria, setting goals and objectives, evaluating the effect of the problem, identifying the causes of the problem, framing alternatives, evaluating impacts of the alternatives, making the decision, implementing the decision, and measuring the impacts. (Decision, 2007.) By using various methods and tools to assist in making important business decisions an individual can ensure the decisions they make will be as successful as possible. In this paper it
The decision is to select an action among a number of actions that solves a given problem, that prevents a problem from happening, or that forces to apply new ideas for development. The need for understanding decision making process is increasing because the complexity of modern organizations is increasing, and because the modern organizations' effectiveness depends on the decisions made by the managers. The question is how to select the most appropriate action to solve the problem satisfying all stakeholders.
FDM answers the basic question asked by the developers of this theory. Their question is as follows. “‘Why do some groups make good decisions while others make bad ones?’ Their model argues that the answer to this question has to do with whether the group has successfully accomplished four functions, which they call requisite functions” (pg.141). The four functions of this theory are problem analysis, goal setting, identify alternatives, and evaluate and select. Problem analysis is when the group focuses on the nature, extent and likely causes of the problem. This requires the group to be careful when differentiating between problems and the symptoms of the problems. Goal setting is when the group identifies what an ideal solution would look like. The group decides what elements are necessary and what elements are ideal but not necessary. Identifying alternatives is when the group generates a large number of possible solutions. This is when the group wants to brainstorm as many possible solutions, no matter what the quality of the solution is. Finally, evaluate and select is when the group evaluate each alternative using the established goals.