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.
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