Group Decision Making Techniques

What is Group Decision-Making?

Group decision-making is defined as a process where a group of people communicates with each other, to make a decision. It is called collective decision-making because this type of decision-making involves groups. All the concerned people sit either together or remotely to communicate about the potential solution to the problem. Various group decision-making techniques are used to find the solution to the problems.

What are Interacting Groups?

“Interacting groups” generally refers to the combination of two or more groups, individuals, or entities that engage in some form of communication, collaboration, or exchange of information or resources to make any decision. These groups can be in various contexts, such as social groups, organisational, or scientific groups.

1. Business and Organizational Groups: In the business world, interacting groups could represent different departments within a company, organisation, or different companies within an industry. These groups collaborate on projects, share information, or engage in partnerships to discuss things.

2. Social Groups: In a social context, interacting groups could refer to friends, family members, or communities that regularly communicate and engage with each other to discuss things or to make important decisions. For instance, a neighborhood association might be considered an interacting group, as its members collaborate on various community initiatives like same festival planning in society

Group Decision-Making Techniques

1. Brainstorming

Brainstorming is defined as a creative technique for generating a large number of ideas or solutions to a problem in a free-flowing and non-judgmental environment without initial judgment or evaluation. This technique includes a group of people to make valid decisions for a problem. For instance, a group of five to ten members sit around the table and discuss the problem to reach a decision. Here, the main focus of all the group members is to generate ideas about the problem from different points of view or different angles. They have no worries about implementing those ideas. Under Brainstorming-

• The technique is very effective when the problem is not so big or the problem is comparatively precise or easy.
• If there is a big problem, then the dividing and conquering technique is followed. Under this, the main problem will be divided into two or more small problems. After getting the solution for all the problems, all solutions will be combined to get the solution to the main problem.

In this technique, while the discussion is going on, there is a possibility of the occurrence of various ideas. At last, all the ideas are compared and the optimal idea or decision will be taken to address the problem.

2. Nominal Group Technique (NGT)

The Nominal Group Technique (NGT) is a structured group decision-making technique used to generate and prioritise ideas or solutions to a specific problem or task. NGT combines individual idea generation with group discussion and voting to achieve consensus. It was developed to be a more systematic and structured alternative to traditional brainstorming. The Nominal Group Technique (NGT) is quite similar to brainstorming, as both of the techniques focus on individual thinking power or the ability to make decisions on an individual level.

• In the Nominal Group Technique (NGT) technique, a group of five to ten members sit together but here the group members think about the problem individually and they do not share their thoughts with anyone.
• They originate ideas for solving the problem. So here the thinking power of the individual also increases.
• When the above-stated phase is completed, all the group members sit together and communicate their ideas.
• All the ideas are now discussed in the group with pros and cons similar to the brainstorming technique.
• After all these ideas have been discussed, the potential solutions are evaluated based on their merits and demerits.
• Each participating member is needed to vote on each idea and allot it a rank based on the priority of each alternative solution.
• At last, the most optimal ideas will be selected to solve the problem.

3. Electronic Meetings

Electronic Meeting is defined as a virtual meeting held on Google Meet, Zoom, or any other platform, to discuss the problem and find various potential solutions. This approach is less costly and there is no need for physical availability. In this way, anyone can take part in the decision-making process anywhere in the world. This technique is mostly used by remote workers to discuss things. This is the most interesting and unique approach to decision-making. This came into use at the time of COVID-19 and after that, this approach or technique was continued in most organisations or firms.

4. Multi-Voting

Multi-voting is also the best group decision-making technique. Here, all the ideas, thoughts, and decisions are written in the polls and then the polls will be shared will all the members to vote according to their interests or choices. This technique is mostly used for yes or no decisions, where a poll is created with two options of yes or no, and the decision will be taken based on poll results.

So these are some group decision-making techniques that are mostly or commonly used, basically selecting the most suitable technique depends on factors, conditions, or situations such as the decision’s complexity, the number of participants, time constraints, and the nature of the issue at hand. Effective facilitation and open communication are essential elements for successful group decision-making, ensuring that the chosen technique aligns with the group’s goals and objectives.