Techniques Of Group Decision Making

In many organizations, group decision making is preferable to individual decision making., there are many techniques used in it. Managers often use committee meetings to put forward their special views and ideas regarding a problem.

The following three are common techniques of group decision making:

1. Brainstorming

Brainstorming is a technique of group decision making in which individually generate an idea in the form of free discussion and understanding. The brainstorming includes a rigorous set of rules. the purpose of the rule is to generate ideas. The basic rules are:
i. Ridiculous or unreasonable ideas should be avoided
ii. Group members are encouraged to state any extreme or new idea
iii. Each idea presented should belong to the group and no to a person

Under this technique, a group is gathered, presented with the problem, and encouraged to produce as many ideas and solutions as they can. Brainstorming encourages freewheeling and one idea sometimes generates another new idea and unique solution. It is widely used in advertising and in some other specific fields. In this technique, the group never really concludes the problem-solving process.

2. Delphi Technique

The Delphi technique involves the solicitation and Comparision of anonymous judgment on the topic of interest through a set of sequential questionnaires. This process retains the advantages of having several judges while removing the biasing effect that might occur during face-to-face interaction.

In this technique, a group of experts is gathered who are experts in their own sector or knowledge and they are asked to give their opinions about the problems. The opinions of the experts are collected by mail questionnaires. The advantage of the Delphi technique is that group experts are totally independent and are not influenced by the opinions of others.

3. Nominal Group Technique

The nominal group technique is a structured technique used to generate creative and innovative ideas. This is very similar to brainstorming but is taken as an effective technique of group decision. This technique is similar to traditional committee meetings, except members work independently; generate an idea for solving the problem in silence and in writing.

This technique involves a two-stage process. In the first stage, individuals work separately. It involves generating ideas, goals, and alternatives. The coordinate collects these written ideas and writes them in a visible chart. In the second phase, written ideas are discussed one by one in a sequence. Each member is encouraged to comment to clarify the ideas.