Leadership: Individual vs Group Decision making (Discussion) (original) (raw)

Decision-Making in Organizations

Advances in Human Resources Management and Organizational Development, 2014

The use of a collaborative decision-making model has been shown to produce more creative solutions and to increase the size of the stakeholder pool, as well as increase the commitment of stakeholders to final decisions. This study combines the research in group decision-making using the functional theory and the bona fide group perspective along with the large body of research on Group Decision Support Systems (GDSS). The purpose is to assist organizations in both making decisions and understanding the processes used and individuals involved in those decisions. This longitudinal study of one university’s collaboration process presents their multiple planning efforts in accreditation and creating civility. Two participant-observers discuss several bona fide decision making groups across a five-year period along with the application of a GDSS that uses Saaty’s Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) to assist in that decision-making. The usefulness of GDSS is discussed and its future applica...

Decision processes in organizations

In this chapter, it is demonstrated that the concepts of leadership and organization are closely linked. A leader should initially get to know the organizational culture as well as possible. Such a culture can for example be authoritarian and conformist or innovative and progressive in nature. The assumption is that leaders are influenced by their own culture. Strategic decisions are characterized by the fact that they are new, complex and open in nature, and being able to develop a strategy is one of the most difficult tasks for a leader. Traditionally, it is primarily the top leadership in an organization that works with strategic decisions, and thus it is common that strategic issues are handled by top leadership teams. This is related to the globalization of business and to the fact that the pace of work has increased significantly. In order to exercise leadership, a leader must have access to power. A power base can be created through networking as well as by using different political tactics. However, it is important to use political tactics in order to promote the organization's interests. When a leader has built up a power base, it is essential that power is used properly. The decisions that leaders make must be ethically correct and not violate universal human values. For instance, they should not lead to negative consequences for others within or outside the organization. Evidence suggests that most leaders have the potential to develop as ethical decision makers.

Group decision making: friend or foe?

2003

Recognized as essential to modern business, collaborative meetings are held to make decisions about product design, market definition, employee hiring, and many other factors that affect business operations. Based on the literature on group decision-making (a single collaboratively assigned selection from an array of choices), several hypothesis have been generated for further research based on three fundamental problems with group decision-making: impact of initial preference and time pressure, impact of group dynamics and politics, and the lack of an objective quantitative group preference. We suggest that group decision making should not be utilized unless there are objective criteria (i.e., money, time) that allow the group members to evaluate decision choices for determination of group preferences. Without these objective criteria, the use of group decision-making should be reserved for use in option generation (i.e. brainstorming), problem solving, or creative processes of an exploratory nature.

Emociones y Procesos de Toma de Decisiones en Grupos Ejecutivos: un Análisis Colectivo

Discrete emotions are rarely studied in relationship with group decision-making. Using data from 20 simulated companies run by a total of 106 managers attending executive education programs, the current research examined to what extent four classes of emotions (positive achievement, positive approach, negative resignation, and negative antagonistic) were related to team decision-making processes (alternative generation and alternative evaluation). Significant intra-class coefficients confirmed that aggregation of emotion and decision-making processes was feasible. Correlations at the collective or aggregated team level showed that approach emotions were related to alternative generation, particularly in the developing phase of a group decision-making task. Finally, a ratio of positive emotions over negative emotions correlated positively with a better team decision process. Future research extending emotion influence in decision process is suggested, and practical implications are d...

Stories and Decision Making. Supporting collective action after a major organisational change

Journal of Decision Systems, 2008

This paper analyses a case study, the merger of two multinational companies, in the light of collective decision making. The particular organisation on which our analysis focuses is a traditional UK based British engineering company that in 1999 bought a collective of family-run businesses, scattered across Scandinavia. This paper draws on the findings from a research project carried out with the newly created company during the post-merger period. The paper explores how the two collectives brought together via a merger are trying to work, make and implement decisions and move forward. The analysis shows how the tension generated by the different narratives brought to place in the merger and the initial resistance to engage in collective action is potentially overcome by the co-authoring of a new narrative, a new “proceduralised context”. This collective co-construction is seen in the paper not as a final output but rather as part of a constant becoming, a “liquid decision making” process (after Bauman, 2000). A finding of this study is that enabling symbolic spaces (contexts) for new narratives to emerge and develop can support the improvement of collective actions.

Leadership and Decision-Making

Administrative Science Quarterly, 1973

Section IV: Situational Approaches to Leadership a social process, with the elements of the process presented in terms of events between people, rather than events that occur within a person. When a problem or occasion for decision making occurs within an organization, there are typically several alternative social mechanisms available for determining what solution is chosen or decision reached. These alternatives vary in the person or persons participating in the problem-solving and decision-making process, and in the relative amounts of influence that each has on the final solution or decision reached.

Group decision-making processes and group decision quality: moderation of mutual interest

Considering the existence of mutual interest in work groups within organisational context, we investigated three main decision-making processes: Personal task participation, negative socio-emotional behaviour and information domination. To illustrate the relationship between group decision-making processes and decision quality, we developed and tested a process model in which the final group decision quality could be predicted by abovementioned decision-making processes. Testing the moderation effect of mutual interest is considered as focus of study and its implications are discussed. Further expansion of our model involves process satisfaction as an intervening variable. The overall assessment of the group decision-making process was captured in the process satisfaction construct and its association with decision quality was analysed. The findings suggested that our 1st model supported the moderation of mutual interest with one exception. The findings of the 2nd model suggested that satisfaction of the group members about decision processes is strongly associated with decision quality.