Group Decision Making:
Organizations are compiled of different type of groups, formal and informal group. Both of these groups have to make decisions for different situations. Decision making is a collective process. Members interact with each other and come to a final decision that is collective decision. The decision may be taken by voting or common alternative agreed.
Techniques of decision making:
Different types of techniques used for the decision making are as follows.
Nominal group technique: Nominal group technique is an important technique of group decision making process. When a high level of innovation and new ideas are to be generated then this technique is used. Members of the decision making group are not known to each other or they have minimum interaction before being a part of this group. It is very planned and structured technique. It may consist of following steps
- Problem is introduced to the members of group at a common platform. Number of members is around six to ten.
- Every member develops a solution independently and writes it on a card.
- Every member presents its solution in front of the group one by one i.e. every member gets chance to share his views or idea. There is just presentation and no discussion.
- After that question round happens so that members can get clarification if any doubt is there.
- Group members prepare their preference on the alternatives available so that a best alternative can be selected.
- Decision is presented to everyone.
Delphi Technique: This is a widely used technique of decision making. A panel of experts is formed to get solution on a particular problem. The members of the panel do not interact with each other or do not discuss about the problem face to face. Their identity is also kept secret from each other. All the members are asked to find solution for the given problem separately. It prevents the influence of one another on the decision. The answers of the queries of problems are then studied and members are asked to review the solutions until a common solution is found. The brief description of the process is as follows.
- Find a range of potential alternatives
- Investigate or expose fundamental assumptions of information leading to different verdicts
- Search for information which may generate a agreement on the part of judgment group
- Compare judgments on a topic across a wide range of disciplines
- Instruct the respondent group on varied and interconnected aspects of the problem
It is a time consuming technique but availability of technology like computer and internet, the process can be speed up.