Group Decision Making Flashcards
(35 cards)
Do groups make better decisions than individuals?
Brainstorming
Group memory
Groupthink
Brainstorming
Uninhabited generation of as many ideas as possible to enhance the creativity of group
Paulus et al.(1993): 4 factors why we might better at generalising ideas as an individual
Evaluation apprehension
Social loafing: reduce effort when work in group
Production matching
Production blocking
Stroebe & Diehl (1994): production blocking is the main obstacle in brainstorming - 2 ways to overcome this problem
Electronic brainstorming
- reduce the problem of waiting turn to speak and hold back ideas. Generate more ideas
Heterogeneous groups
- diverse types of knowledge about the brainstorming topics may create a stimulating environment
The illusion of group effectivity
Experience-based belief that we produce more and better ideas in groups than alone
Distorted perceptions during brainstorming
Group memory
The ability to recall information
Clark & Stephenson (1989): groups remember more than individuals
Examined the accuracy of free recall and cued recall of a fictional police interrogation between individual, dyadic and groups of four
Groups remember more correct information than individuals
As they are more likely to fill in the gaps of others memory
Lorge and Solomon (1995): groups recall more…
Groups recall more than individuals because members communicate unshared information and recognise true information when it hears it
Steiner (1976): Group seems to have better capacity to remember things, but also depends on the memory task (types of information)
Individuals are better at recalling complex information
Groups better at remembering more on simplistic artificial tasks
Clark and Stephenson have conducted a series of experiments on group remembering
Generally students or police officers individually or collectively recalled information from a five minute police interrogation
Participants had to recall freely and answer specific questions
Group recalled more correct information
Individual recalled more meta-statements
A different perspective on group remembering (Wegner, 1987) Transactive memory
Group members have a shared memory for who within the group remembers what and is the expert on what
Couples and groups can share memory load, so that each individual is responsible for remembering only part of what the group needs to know, but all members know who is responsible for each memory domain
一人記唔同嘅嘢分工合作
Transactive memory is very common in close relationships
Both partners know that one of them remember to take the bins out, another remember the financial matters
Transactive memory is related to group mind
People adopt a qualitatively different mode of thinking when in a group
Wegner, Erber, & Raymond (1991)
Initially when groups, the transactive memory is usually social categorisation and based on the stereotype
Category-based transactive memory
However groups goes on to develop more sophisticated memory assignment system
Groups negotiate responsibility for different roles
Groups assign roles based on relative expertise and access to information
Problems of transactive memory
Uneven distribution of member in couple or a group
When an individual lives there is a temporary loss or reduction in group memory
Argote et al. (1995): Group that learns together stays together
Met over consecutive weeks to produce complete origami objects
Member turnover disrupted group learning and performance and worsen over time
Attempt to reduce the problem with individual training was unsuccessful
Groupthink
The group decision process that produced the poor decision (Janis,1982)
The mode of thinking in highly cohesive groups in which the desire to reach unanimous agreement overrides the motivation to adopt a proper rational decision-making procedures
Process of groupthink
Excessive group cohesiveness will leads to…
Feelings of invulnerability and unanimity
Which results in poor decision-making procedures
Symptoms of groupthink
Feelings of invulnerability
Unquestioning believe that group must be right
Tendency to ignore or discredit information contrary to groups position
Stereotyping of our group members
Overcome groupthink
Leadership assign someone to the role of critical evaluator
Group and neither should avoid stating preferences and expectation
Everyone in group should be encouraged to think critically
Group polarisation
Tendency for group decision to produce more extreme group decisions then the meaning of members pre-discussion opinions, in the direction favoured by the mean
Risky shift
Tendency for group discussion that are more risky then the meaning of members pre-discussion opinions, but only if the pre-discussion mean already favoured risk
Stoner (1961): facing choice dilemma
Participant made their own private recommendation and then met in small groups to discuss each dilemma and reach an unanimous group recommendation
Found that groups tented to recommend the risky alternative more than individuals
