Greetings to all,

This week for one of our discussion topics we were asked to examine three different group decision making methods; starting with an examination of the Delphi technique.  

According to Sullivan and Payne (2011), a group decision-making method known as the Delphi technique was designed after World War II in order to enable a structured process for groups that would not allow for peer pressure to be a factor in the process. With the Delphi technique, a panel of experts are selected and are kept anonymous from one another in order to prevent the experts from potentially influencing one another. For what is described as a classical Delphi, this technique is used primarily to reach a consensus on a posed issue being inquired about to determine the underlying facts in order to arrive at fact-based answers (Sullivan & Payne, 2011).

A decision-making method is known as the Nominal Group technique, according to Gepson, Martinko, and Belina (1981), was designed to gain maximum input from participants while at the same time limiting the conflict and dysfunction within the group. In order to reduce the amount of argument in this technique, participants were required to generate ideas in writing. They were given equal time to provide feedback for each idea uninterrupted, and discuss each recorded idea at length, ending with a vote on each idea to make a decision. The reason behind this process was to allow for all ideas to be voiced and heard equally while using the group to identify and narrow down their decision from the ideas presented by the participants (Gepson, Martinko, & Belina, 1981).

Lastly, what is known as the Stepladder technique is another group decision-making process that was designed to guide a select number of people in a group into reaching a consensus on the issue at hand. In the Stepladder technique, for example with a group of four people, the group will start with what is called the core group. The core group, with a group of two people, will begin by developing a solution to the problem at hand; then later on the third member will be added to the core group with their own solution to the problem. This three-person group will then hash out the problem set with the two solutions and come up with a consensus. Then the fourth member will be added to the three-person core group with their own solution to the issue at hand; the group then discusses their options and renders a final group decision to the initial problem set as a collective group (Rogelberg, Barnes-Farrell, & Lowe, 1992).      

The Nominal Group technique and the Stepladder technique are similar in the simple fact that they are both group decision-making processes aimed at trying to guide a group of individuals to come up with the best possible solution or decision possible. The difference between the two techniques is the process in which a consensus is reached. For the Stepladder technique, a core group meets first and keeps growing until all participants are in the group and a decision is reached. For the Nominal Group technique, all participants start off together from the beginning and work through the issue together while still having equal input to the decision-making process. The Delphi method is similar to these two methods, as it is again a group decision-making process aimed at reaching a consensus amongst its participants. Where the Delphi technique is different is in the fact that participants do not communicate with one another, making for no influence in the data being presented.

References

Gepson, J., Martinko, M. J., & Belina, J. (1981). Nominal group techniques. Training & Development Journal, 35(9), 78-83.

Rogelberg, S., Barnes-Farrell, J., & Lowe, C. A. (1992). The stepladder technique: An alternative group structure facilitating effective group decision making. Journal of Applied Psychology , 77(5), 730-737.

Sullivan, W., & Payne, K. (2011). The appropriate elicitation of expert opinion in economic models . PharmacoEconomics, 29(6), 455-459.