GROUP 1: COGNITIVE BEHAVIOR IN GROUPS

DECISION RULES AND SCHEMES

1. ) What are the main advantages and disadvantages in using groups to

make decisions?

ADVANTAGES:
 A team brings more resources to a problem
 Process gain
 Incorrect information is more likely to be identified and rejected by a team
 A team has a better memory for past facts and events
 Team members combine different skills and knowledge to make higher
quality decisions
 Motivational effect

DISADVANTAGES:
 Teams are less efficient in making decisions
 May encounter many communication problems
 Decisions can get bogged down in emotional conflicts that waste time
 Dominant member during discussions
 Teams do not pool all the knowledge available

2. )How are consultative, democratic, and consensus decision making

different?

Consultative decision making

is when the leader involves the members of the group by asking them to share
ideas, perceptions, and information concerning the decision. As the leader you maintain
control and responsibility for the decision but let the group know how their input
impacted the final decision.

 Advantages: Group participation and involvement in the decision making

process can lead to increased levels of commitment to the collaborative
work.

 Disadvantages: Group members may assume they have a say in the final
decision, which is not the case. It must be clear to the group that their
recommendations will be considered, but the leader is still making the final
decision.

 When to Use This Style: Use consultative decision making when you don’t
have time to negotiate consensus but you need the expertise of the group
to make a quality decision

Democratic:
The leader gives up ultimate decision-making authority and has an equal vote in
the democratic decision-making process where the majority wins. While the group votes
and the majority leads, no one individual is responsible for the decision and the group
may not feel responsible if all of the members did not vote. There may be no
responsibility taken for the decision.

 Advantages: Provides an opportunity for all group members to have equal

input in decisions that can be made fairly quickly and with minimal impact.
  Disadvantages: Group members may agree to comply with the voting
decision, but they may not take ownership or feel responsible for the
decision if their vote did not win.
 When to Use This Style: Democratic decision making can be used to narrow
down the field of alternatives for consideration, and when you need to
speed up decision results. Use it when it is important to know the general
opinion of the group, but you do not anticipate major resistance from those
who “lose” the vote

Consensus decision making

means that every group member buys into the decision. The leader gives up total
control of the decision to the group. Group members are fully committed to the
decision. They have a sense of ownership and responsibility for follow-through and the
outcome.

 Advantages: Individual group members feel valued and respected while

agreeing with and supporting the group’s decision. Every group member
has a stake in the success of the decision.
 Disadvantages: It requires a structured discussion process that allows
enough time to fully explore information, thoughts, and feelings related to
the decision.
 When to Use This Style: Use consensus decision making when you want
high quality input and commitment, with follow-through, from the group

3. )What factors are useful for evaluating a decision-making approach?

 QUALITY
Use the resources of the team to make a high-quality decision
 TIME
Reflect efficient time management
 ACCEPTANCE
The members of the team should be willing to accept it and support its
implementation

Normative Decision-Making Theory

based on the assumption that the best type of decision-making approach
depends on the nature of the problem. The problem determines how important quality,
speed, and acceptance are in reaching a decision.

The analysis of the problem focuses on two issues:

1. whether a quality decision is important and;
2. whether acceptance of the decision by subordinates is important.

DECISION MAKING PROCESS

ORIENTATION

 Problems with Planning

Given the clear benefits of spending time setting goals and making plans, it is
unfortunate that few groups show much interest in planning their procedures.
When a group member raises the issue of planning, very rarely do any of the
other group members respond positively When groups are given a problem to
solve or a decision to make, their first tendency is to get started on the task
itself rather than consider process-related issues. (Hackman et al., 1976)

 Defining Problem and Goals

Groups may know exactly what they want to achieve and how they will go
about doing it, but most must first clarify both the goals they seek and the path
they will take to reach those goals (Shaw,1981). Goal clarification requires not
only setting specific, attainable goals, but also the review of the group’s
overall mission, the problems it is dealing with and the decisions it must make,
the results it intends to deliver, and the criteria it will use to evaluate the
quality of its performance and results.

 Planning fallacy
The tendency for individuals and groups to underestimate the time, energy,
and means needed to complete a planned project successfully

DISCUSSION

 Discussion. The communication of information between two or more

people undertaken for some shared purpose, such as solving a problem,
making a decision, or increasing participants mutual understanding of the
situation

 Collective Memory Processes. Two heads are better than one because
groups have superior memories for information relative to individuals.

 Cross-cuing. The enhancement of recall that occurs during group discussion

when the statements made by group members serve as cues for the
retrieval of information from the memories of other group members.

 Information Exchange. Groups do not merely draw on a larger pool of

information than individuals. They can also exchange information among
the members of the group, thereby further strengthening their access to
information as well as their recall of that information

 Processing Information. Groups not only recall and exchange information

more effectively than individuals, but they also process that information
more thoroughly through discussion. Members ask questions, and others
offer answers.

 Error Detection and Correction. As groups discuss information, they

appraise the validity of ideas being shared, seeking increased accuracy, and
identifying any errors of fact or implications
DIFFICULTY OF DISCUSSION

 Groups Are Forgetful. Groups can make use of cognitive mechanisms

such as cross-cueing and transactive memory to improve their recall of
information, but groups are not mnemonic marvels.

 Group Members Misunderstand. Group members make decisions by

exchanging information, but they often make mistakes both when
expressing their message and when listening to what others say. On the
sender side, many group members lack the skills needed to express
themselves clearly. They fail to make certain that their verbal and non-
verbal messages are easily decipherable and so unintentionally mislead,
confuse, or even insult other members.

MAKING THE DECISION

 A social decision. scheme is a group’s method for combining individual

member’s inputs in a single group decision.

 Averaging: Statisticize Decisions. In some cases, groups make decisions

by combining each individual’s preferences using some type of
computational procedure. If the group must select the best option
among five alternatives, for example, each member could make his or
her decision individually (either before or after a group discussion), and
these private recommendations could then be averaged to yield a
group decision.

 Voting: Plurality Decisions. Members express their individual

preferences publicly or, to reduce social pressure, by secret ballot. In
most cases, the group selects the alternative favored by the majority of
the members (the very common majority-rules scheme), but in some
cases, a more substantial plurality (such as a two-thirds majority
scheme) is needed before a decision becomes final. Some groups also
use ranking methods with more points awarded to alternatives that are
ranked higher than others (the Borda count method).
 Reaching Consensus: Unanimous Decisions Some groups, such as
juries, officially adopt a consensus rule, but, in many cases, groups that
adopt a plurality decision scheme reach consensus at the final vote.
This outcome can occur when all in the group actually agree, but it also
happens when the minority who disagree vote for the favored solution
for various reasons, including not wanting to be on the side that loses.

 Delegating: Sharing Decisions. The group as a whole does not make the
decision when the decision is made by the group’s leader, or is
delegated to one of the members, a subgroup within the group, or
someone outside of the group. Under an authority scheme, the leader,
president, or other individual makes the final decision with or without
input from the group members. Delegation saves the group time and is
appropriate for less important issues. Delegation is also used, in some
cases, as a means to avoid responsibility and blame if the decision goes
away.
IMPLEMENTATION

 Social Justice. Implementation is, in some cases, more or less successful

depending on perceptions of the fairness of the decision. Fairness
judgments are determined by two forms of social justice: distributive
and procedural.

 Distributive justice. concerns how rights, resources, and costs are

granted to, shared with, and imposed on (distributed across) a group’s
members.

 Participation and Voice. Many factors influence perceptions of

procedural fairness, but when people believe that they had a voice in
the matter that they could have expressed any concerns they had and
others would have listened and responded then they tend to be far
more engaged in the implementation of the final decision.

 Dysfunctional Post-decision Tendencies. Groups should review the

strategies they used to make their decision and implement their
solution. But groups are often so confident that their solution is the
correct one that the post-decision review process is unsystematic,
attenuated, biased, or skipped altogether.

 Evaluating the Plan. The invasion failed not only because it was based
on incorrect information about the region and the forces that were
involved in the conflict, but also because the planners did not agree on
the basic purpose of the mission. As the attack unfolded, changes were
made to deal with circumstances, and these choices did not have the
desired effects. The mission failed.

HOW TO IMPROVE GROUP DECISION

Decision-Making Problems
 Disagreements, negative emotions, time pressure, and external stress
can cause these problems
Causes of Group Decision-Making Problems

Disagreement
 Disagreement helps stimulate thinking and leads to better decisions.
Group discussions with some disagreement lead to better decisions
than conflict-free group discussions (Schwenk, 1990)

Impact of Emotions
 Emotions have both positive and negative effects on group decision
making. Positive emotions can help to improve group discussions and
decision making (Emich, 2014).

 Negative emotions can create problems for group decision making.

When teams face a lot of pressure, they tend to become risk averse and
head toward safe, generic solutions that have worked in the past
(Gardner, 2012)
Negative pressure
 on a team may be due to time constraints or outside influences. Teams
respond to time pressure by trying to make quick decisions. To do this,
they often use decision-making approaches that are simple and
inadequate (Zander, 1994).

Stress
 Stress from forces outside a team may also lead to poor decision
making. When teams experience stress, they have a stronger desire for
uniformity of opinion among members (Kerr & Tindale, 2004)

GROUP 2: SOCIAL PRESSURES ON GROUP MEMBERS

WHAT IS GROUP
 A group exist when two or more people interact for more than a few
moments, affect one another in some way, and think of themselves as
"us" . Group perceives themselves as "us" in contrast to "them"

INCREASING THE EFFECT OF SOCIAL PRESSURES

social influence in interacting groups

 Group polarization- a group of like-minded people reinforce each
other’s opinions, positive or negative, and these opinions become more
extreme as they're discussed or people start to think differently

 Group think- is a psychological phenomenon in which people strive for

consensus within a group or start thinking alike.

 Minority influence- when a minority (small group) changes the

attitudes, beliefs, and behaviors of a majority

social pressure
 The exertion of influence on a person or group by another person or
group

The effect of social pressure

Positive
 sense of belonging and support.
 Increased selfconfidence
 Introduction to positive hobbies and interests and many more
Negative
 can decrease selfconfidence
 can decrease self-worth and
 distancing from family members and friends. and many more

Social pressure may cause people to change their picture of reality, and those who resist
it can be emotionally upset. Fitting in feels good, even at the expense of your otherwise
good sense(s)—and we may pay an emotional price for the courage of our convictions.

 Informational influence-rational argument and persuasion

 Normative influence- calls for conformity
 Direct forms of influence- demands, threats, or personal attacks
 Interpersonal influence-promises of rewards or social approval on the
others.
DEINDIVIDUATION: WHEN DO PEOPLE LOSE THEIR SENSE OF
SELF IN GROUPS
Loss of self-awareness and evaluation apprehension; occurs in group situations that
foster responsiveness to group norms, good or bad.

A. Doing Together What We Would not Do Alone

GROUP SIZE
A group has the power not only to arouse its members but also to render them
unidentifiable.

People's attention is focused on the situation,not on themselves. And because"everyone

is doing it, " all can contribute their behavior to the situation rather to their own choices

B. DEMINISHED SELF-AWARENESS

Unself-conscious, deindividuated people are less restrained, less self-regulated, more

likely to act without thinking about their own values, and more responsive to the
situation

GROUP 3: Cohesiveness of a Group

WHAT IS GROUP COHESION?
Group cohesion is the strength of the bonds linking members to a group. Cohesiveness
is an indication of the health of the group and is related to a variety of other group
processes

COMPONENTS OF COHESION

DESCRIPTION EXAMPLES
SOCIAL COHESION Attraction of members to I have many friends in this
one another and to the group. I love this group.
group as a whole.
TASK COHESION Capacity to perform This group is the best at
successfully as a what it does. I do my
coordinated unit and as
part of
EMOTIONAL COHESION Emotional intensity of the This group has team spirit.
group and individuals I get excited just being in
when in the group this group
PERCEIVED COHESION The construed coherence This is a unified group. I
of the group; sense of am one with this group
belonging to the group;
unit

ANTECEDENTS OF COHESION

 INTERPERSONAL ATTRACTION
Sherif and Sherif, using a unique field- study method in a boys' summer camp,
found that the same sorts of variables that influence liking and group formation also
influence the cohesiveness of the group that is formed
 STABILITY, SIZE, & STRUCTURE
As defined by Ziller, open groups display less cohesion than closed groups.
Smaller groups tend to be more cohesive than larger groups, as do groups with
particular structural features (such as the absence of subgroups, less hierarchy, etc.)
 INITIATIONS
Festinger’s theory of cognitive dissonance explains why initiations can increase
commitment to a group, and Aronson and Mills confirmed that people who go through
some kind of initiation to join a group tend to like that group more. However, when an
initiation is severe, such as some extreme hazing practices, it does not increase
cohesiveness

1. Cohesion is, in most cases, the consequence of a period of group development—a

pattern of growth and change beginning with initial formation and ending, in most
cases, with dissolution.

2. As Hill notes, many theories have been developed to explain group development.
Most, however, are consistent with Tuckman’s five stage model

STAGES OF GROUP DEVELOPMENT

DESCRIPTION
ORIENTATION (forming) Members experience tentative interactions,
tension, concern over ambiguity, growing
interdependence, and attempts to identify
the nature of the situation
CONFLICT (storming) Members express dissatisfaction with the
group, respond emotionally, criticize one
another, and form coalitions
STRUCTURE (norming) Unity increases, membership stabilizes,
members report increased satisfaction, and
the group’s internal dynamics intensify
WORK (performing The group’s focus shifts to the performance
of tasks and goal attainment. Not all groups
reach this stage, for even highly cohesive
groups are not necessarily productive
DISSOLUTION (adjourning) The group disbands. A group’s entry into the
dissolution stage can be either planned or
spontaneous, but even planned dissolution
can create problems for members as they
work to reduce their dependence on the
group

3. WHEELAN’S GROUP DEVELOPMENT QUESTIONNAIRE measures group development.

4. Tuckman’s
model is a

successive- stage theory— it specifies the usual order of the phases of group
development
WHAT ARE THE POSITIVE AND NEGATIVE CONSEQUENCES OF COHESION?
1. In most instances, cohesion is associated with increases in member satisfaction
and decreases in turnover and stress
2. Cohesion intensifies group processes. Cohesive groups can be so psychologically
demanding that they cause emotional problems for members (e.g., the old
sergeant’s syndrome)
3. Cohesion and performance are linked, both because success increases a group’s
cohesion and because cohesive groups tend to outperform less cohesive groups

Even though cohesive groups tend to outperform less cohesive groups, this relationship
is strongest when members are committed to the group’s tasks. If group norms do not
encourage high productivity, then cohesiveness and productivity are negatively relate