Advantages And Disadvantages Of Groups In Groups

Is it possible that too many cooks spoil the broth? Decision-making in groups is a well-established fact of modern life in organizations today. It has been said that some administrators spend as much as 80 percent of their time in committee meetings. However, it is important to consider the strengths and weaknesses of using groups to make organizational decisions. There are several advantages , it may increase the pool of knowledge and information available for good decisions; as well as the group members are more likely to enjoy peer acceptance while working with each other. There are also problems associated with using groups. One drawback is that sometimes groups can waste time socializing before getting down to business at hand. This can be a huge cost factor for organizations. There are several pros and cons of using groups to make decisions, neither group nor individuals are always superior. Whether a group would do better than an individual depends on several important factors. Successful groups tend to be composed of heterogeneous group members with complementary skills, who can contribute to their group’s product freely and openly. In summary, whether groups make a better decisions than individuals depends on the nature of the task performed and the expertise of the people involved. Most of the problems faced by organizations require a great deal of creative thinking. Research has shown that a poorly structured, creative tasks, can be better performed by an individual than groups. ( George and Jones, 2012, pp. 122-123). In summary, group performs worse than individuals when working on creative tasks. Sometimes, an individual member may feel inhibited by the presence of others. Another factor that we need to examine, is th...

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...communication , by pooling and actively trying to engage all members in the voting process. I would not speak first nor have any of the executive team shift the meeting by speaking first. I wouldn’t be able to monitor the size of the group, because of the nature of this organization. Robbins and Judge, state that I could encourage one of the team members to play an impartial role, by challenging the group comfort level, and offering a different perspective. We could encourage some of the younger sorority members to run for office, so that the executive team member could mentor them in their new position. Sound like a win win situation for the organization as a whole. P. 293.

Reference:

Robbins, S and Judge, T (2013). Organization Behavior. New Jersey¨ Pearson Education, Inc. George, Jennifer M. and Jones, Gareth R. (2012). New Jersey: Pearson Prentice Hall