Group decision making

Have you ever noticed how people sometimes act differently in groups than they do as individuals? The influence of groups on individual behavior, productivity, and well-being can have both positive and negative effects. In this article, we talk about group dynamics that affect decision making, and how supervisors and leaders can cultivate healthy environments for team discussions.

Groups are useful for sharing knowledge, pooling resources, and generating ideas. But they don’t always make good decisions together. In “The Psychology of Groups,” Donelson Forsyth, PhD, describes three reasons why that might happen — group polarization, the common knowledge effect, and groupthink.

Group polarization

Group polarization happens when the opinions and decisions of a group shift to the extremes. After discussion, group decisions tend to be more extreme than individuals’ decisions would have been on their own.

An example of group polarization is when a jury of people who individually favor low damage awards before discussion favor even lower ones after discussion.

Common Knowledge Effect

Groups experiencing the common knowledge effect spend time focused on knowledge shared by two or more of group members. They sideline knowledge held by individuals. This means they might not account for important information when making decisions.

For example, researchers have found that when members of hiring panels were allowed to gather their own information on job applicants, leading to both unique and shared knowledge of the applicants, discussion revolved around the shared knowledge, and gave little weight to unique knowledge of the applicants.

Groupthink

Groupthink is when groups decide on a course of action and are unable to consider alternatives. Groupthink is more likely to happen in groups that are:

• Cohesive. The group is unified in a way that decreases dissention and disagreement under the pressure to conform.
• Isolated. The group only works with its own members. It doesn’t allow outsiders in.
• Have biased leadership. The group leader uses authority to control and applies pressure to conform.
• Under stress, especially from deadlines. The group reduces stress by quickly choosing an action. It exaggerates positive outcomes and minimizes negative ones. It focuses on details and sidelines larger issues.

These factors can lead groups to negative outcomes. Supervisors and leaders play a central role in reducing these factors and creating healthy environments for group discussions and decision making. A key way to do this is through psychological safety.

Psychological safety is “a shared belief…that the team is safe for interpersonal risk taking.” It is a group culture that allows people to move out of self-preservation and into a mindset that allows for individual and organizational growth.

Use consultative and supportive leadership approaches.

Consultative and supportive leadership approaches promote positive team climate. In a McKinsey & Company article, researchers define consultative leaders as those who “consult their team members, solicit input, and consider the team’s views on issues that affect them.”

Supportive leaders demonstrate “concern and support for team members not only as employees but also as individuals.” The researchers note that leaders can challenge employees to do more, but only when a positive team climate is in place.

Ensure everyone has opportunity to speak.

Researchers studying team dynamics at Google discovered that on healthy teams, each member spoke about the same amount as the other members. Conversely, as one researcher observed, “…if only one person or a small group spoke all the time, the collective intelligence declined.’’

Leaders can help set norms that give each member time to say what hasn’t yet been said. Examples of techniques for facilitating this include:

• Discuss pros and cons to decisions.
• Appoint “devil’s advocates” whose role is to challenge the proposed decision.
• Break larger groups into small discussion groups.

Cultivate emotional intelligence.

The Google teams researchers also found that the healthy teams “were skilled at intuiting how others felt based on their tone of voice, their expressions and other nonverbal cues… They seemed to know when someone was feeling upset or left out.” These teams could be described as having a high emotional intelligence.

Emotional intelligence has been defined as “a set of skills that help us recognize, understand, and manage our own emotions as well as recognize, understand and influence the emotions of others.” Although some people might seem born with a natural ability to “read” others’ emotions, you can build emotional intelligence with a variety of educational and self-help options available today.

“…although your group should review its goals, teamwork, and decision-making strategies, the human side of groups — the strong friendships and bonds that make group activity so enjoyable — shouldn’t be overlooked. …. For most of us, groups are the secret source of well-being.”
— Donelson Forsyth, PhD

The Department of Enterprise Services (DES) offers a wide range of leadership and employee training and development options. To learn more, visit DES training or contact DES learning consultants.

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