Essay Questions
2. Discuss the pros and cons of group decision-making.
Key Points:
- Consider that workgroups, or teams, are increasingly common in organizations (including a differentiation between formal and informal workgroups).
- Discuss the Hawthorne effect and other studies that took place in the Hawthorne Works.
- Identify the four main formal types of formal work teams and what makes them effective.
- Models for understanding teams (including inputs, processes and outputs).
- Consider the full range of processes that lead to poor group decision-making , i.e. everything from personality factors to the hidden profile.
- Understand that group decision-making within organizations is more complex than is commonly appreciated or understood, and explain how researchers have begun to identify ways of overcoming some of these deficiencies (e.g. the ‘stepladder technique’).
- Acknowledge that research on techniques for optimizing group decision-making is still in its infancy, indicating that researchers and practitioners in organizational psychology are increasingly exploring how to structure and manage organizations that ensure that team-working fulfils its potential.
