PARTICIPATIVE DECISION MAKING TECHNIQUES:Expertise, Thinking skills

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Organizational Psychology (PSY510)

LESSON 30

PARTICIPATIVE DECISION MAKING TECHNIQUES

Participative decision making techniques involve individuals or groups in process. As organizations move

from centralized decision making to a non-centralized one, it has become important for all concerned

people to be involved in the decision making process so that the decision is the best possible alternative.

Participated decision making techniques range from no participation to participation of all concerned

individuals. Participation techniques are being applied formally and informally on an individual or a team

basis or formally on a program basis.

These techniques may be categorized as follows:

· Consultative: In consultative decision making, the right of decision making resides with the manager

and he may consult or have the opinion of other concerned.

· Democratic: In democratic decision making, decision is made by the group as a whole rather than an

individual.

Participative decision making, as mentioned earlier, is the need of the hour. However, it has some merits as

well as demerits. The most important merit participative decision making is that it allows all concerned

people to participate which is not only encouraging for them but also leads to satisfaction on part of the

employees with their jobs.

On the other hand, on the greatest demerits of such techniques is that they are time consuming as

compared to individual decision making. Further, the concept of pseudo-participation may serve as a cause

of dissatisfaction for those employees who put in their best in the decision making process. Pseudo-

participation refers to employees pretending to participate in the process while actually contributing very

little. It is similar to a group of students working on an assignment where two out of the four may work

very hard while others may only pretend to work. This leads to dissatisfaction on part of the employees

rather than satisfaction.

Creativity

A psychodynamic approach to understanding creativity was proposed by Sigmund Freud, who suggested

that creativity arises as a result of frustrated desires for fame, fortune, and love, with the energy that was

previously tied up in frustration and emotional tension in the neurosis being sublimated into creative

activity. Freud later retracted this view.

Although intuitively a simple phenomenon, it is in fact quite complex. It has been studied from the

perspectives of behavioural psychology, social psychology, psychometrics, cognitive science, artificial

intelligence, philosophy, history, economics, design research, business, and management, among others. The

studies have covered everyday creativity, exceptional creativity and even artificial creativity. Unlike many

phenomena in science, there is no single, authoritative perspective or definition of creativity. Unlike many

phenomena in psychology, there is no standardized measurement technique.

Creativity has been attributed variously to divine intervention, cognitive processes, the social environment,

personality traits, and chance ("accident," "serendipity"). It has been associated with genius, mental illness

and humour. Some say it is a trait we are born with; others say it can be taught with the application of

simple techniques.

As the world becomes a global village, one of the greatest challenges faced by organizations is to remain

competitive and think beyond the box. Organizations need to change, adapt to the change and innovate in

order to survive the continuously harshening environment. In simple terms, the process of being able to

think beyond the box and come up with novel ideas which are practical and applicable is creativity.

According to the creativity researcher Teresa Amabile, creativity consists of three things:

· Expertise

Expertise refers to technical, procedural and intellectual knowledge.

· Thinking skills

Thinking skills refer to how flexibly and imaginatively people can deal with problems and make

effective decisions.

Motivation

Motivation is the desire to solve given problems.

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Simply put, creativity results in people looking at things differently. Research shows that, in contrast to the

average person, creative people seem better able to do things such as abstracting, imaging, synthesizing,

recognizing patterns and empathizing with others. Creativity and decision making have a close relationship

as creative people tend to make useful decisions for the organization's survival.

Psychological definition of creativity is that it involves combing responses in a novel way. Psychologists

suggest that it is difficult to point out the reasons for creativity however, following dimensions of creativity

have been identified:

· Divergent thinking

This refers to a person's ability to generate novel, but still appropriate, responses to question and

problems. This is in contrast to convergent thinking where decisions are based purely on logic and

rationality.

· Cognitive complexity

This refers to a person's ability to use intricate and complex stimuli and thinking patterns. Such decision

making patterns are usually adopted in solution of philosophical or abstract problems.

Group and Decision Making

Research in social psychology has shown that in group decision making following variants are observed:

· Majority Wins Scheme

According to this scheme, the group finally comes to the same conclusion or decision which was

initially supported by the majority.

· Truth Wins Scheme

According to this scheme, the group tends to make decisions based on objectively correct and plausible

alternatives.

· Two-third Majority Scheme

According to this scheme, the group tends to support decisions that were initially supported by two-

third majority.

· First-shift scheme

According to this scheme, if in a group there is an opposition to some decision, the decision would be

based on the first person changing has allegiance with the point of view which he or she originally held.

· Status quo tendency

Group decision making often tends to support or end up in status quo.

· Risky Shift

Decisions made in a group tend to be riskier than decisions made by individuals.

· Group think

Phenomenon in which the norm for consensus overrides the realistic appraisal of alternative courses of

action.

Delphi Techniques of Decision Making

The Delphi technique is a method for obtaining forecasts from a panel of independent experts over two or

more rounds. Experts are asked to predict quantities. After each round, an administrator provides an

anonymous summary of the experts' forecasts and their reasons for them. When experts' forecasts have

changed little between rounds, the process is stopped and the final round forecasts are combined by

averaging. Delphi is based on well-researched principles and provides forecasts that are more accurate than

those from unstructured groups (Rowe and Wright 1999, Rowe and Wright 2001).

It is a complex and time consuming alternative. It does not require the physical presence of group members.

In fact, the Delphi technique never allows the group's members to meet face to face. The following steps

characterize Delphi technique:

1. The problem is identified and members are asked to provide potential solutions through a series of

carefully designed questionnaires.

2. Each member anonymously and independently completes the first questionnaire.

3. Results of the first questionnaire are compiled at a central location, transcribed, and reproduced.

4. Each member receives a copy of the results.

5. After viewing the results, members are again asked for their solutions. The results typically trigger new

solutions or cause changes in the orginal position.

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Organizational Psychology (PSY510)

6. Steps 4 and 5 are repeated as often as necessary until consensus is reached.

The Delphi technique insulates group members from undue influence of others. Because it does not require

the physical presence of the participants, the Delphi technique can be used for decision making among

geographically scattered groups. For instance, a Japanese electronics company could use the technique to

query its mangers in Tokyo, Brussels, Paris, London, New York Toronto, Rio de Janeiro, and Melbourne as

to the best worldwide price for one of the company's products. The cost of brining the executive together a

central location is avoided. Of course, the Delphi technique has its drawbacks. Because the method is

extremely time consuming, it is frequently not applicable where a speedy decision is necessary. Additionally,

the method may not develop the rich array of alternatives as the nominal group technique does. Ideas that

might surface from the heat of face-to-face interaction may never arise. Interacting group suffer from

inhibition and group think therefore this method is more useful

Nominal Group Techniques (NGT) Of Decision Making

The nominal group technique is a decision-making method for use among groups of many sizes, who want

to make their decision quickly, as by a vote, but want everyone's opinions taken into account (as opposed to

traditional voting, where only the largest group is considered). The method of tallying is the difference.

First, every member of the group gives their view of the solution, with a short explanation. Then, duplicate

solutions are eliminated from the list of all solutions, and the members proceed to rank the solutions. The

numbers each solution receives are totalled, and the solution with the highest (i.e. most favored) total

ranking is selected as the final decision. There are variations on how this technique is used. For example, it

can identify strengths versus areas in need of development, rather than be used as a decision-making voting

alternative. Also, options do not always have to be ranked, but may be evaluated more subjectively.

The nominal group technique restricts discussion or interpersonal communication during the decision-

making process, hence the term nominal. Group members are al physically present, as in a traditional

committee meeting, but members operate independently. Specifically, a problem is presented and then the

following steps take place:

1. Members meet as a group but, before any discussion takes place, each member independently writes

down his or her ideas on the problem.

2. This silent period is followed by each member presenting one idea to the group. Each member takes his

or her turn, going around the table, presenting a single idea until all ideas have been presented and

recorded (typically on a flip chard or chalkboard). No discussion takes place until all ideas have been

recorded.

3. The group now discusses the ideas for clarity and evaluates them.

4. Each group member silently and independently rank-orders the ideas. The final decision is determined

by the ideas with the highest aggregate ranking.

The chief advantage of the nominal group technique is that it permits the group to meet formally but does

not restrict independent thinking, as does the interacting group. Nominal group technique is considered

superior to Delphi technique.

REFERENCES

· Luthans, Fred. (2005). Organizational Behaviour (Tenth Edition). United States: McGraw Hill Irwin.

· Mejia, Gomez. Balkin, David & Cardy, Robert. (2006). Managing Human Resources (Fourth Edition).

India: Dorling Kidersley Pvt. Ltd., licensee of Pearson Education in South Asia.

· Robbins, P., Stephen. (1996). Organizational Behaviour (Seventh Edition). India: Prentice Hall, Delhi.

· Huczynski, Andrzej & Buchanan, David. (1991). Organizational Behaviour: An Introductory Text

(Second Edition). Prentice Hall. New York.

· Moorhead, Gregory & Griffin, Ricky. (2001). Organizational Behaviour (First Edition). A.I.T.B.S.

Publishers & Distributors. Delhi.

· Creativity: Psychological Definition: Retrieved from: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Creativity

· Delphi technique definition: Retrieved from: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Delphi_technique

· Nominal group technique: Retrieved from: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nominal_Group_Technique

FURTHER READING

Decision making: http://unpan1.un.org/intradoc/groups/public/documents/unssc/unpan022443.pdf

· Creativity: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Creativity

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Organizational Psychology (PSY510)

Delphi technique definition: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Delphi_technique

Nominal group technique: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nominal_Group_Techniques

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