Preview

Do Teams Make Better Decisions Than Individuals

Powerful Essays
Open Document
Open Document
3296 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Do Teams Make Better Decisions Than Individuals
Do Teams make better decisions than Individuals?

Technology continues to bring business competitors closer together in the global market. Smart businesses are positioning themselves to take the lead by using their intellectual capital at every level of the organization. Teams of employees are crucial to the partnership of corporate leadership, managers, and employees to improve company decision making and maximize strategic business advantages. Decision making is a large part of doing business. When there is only one person affected by a decision, it is relatively easy. But when employees and coworkers are involved, the best solution could be found be involving the group or team that will be affected (Francis).
According to Carl Spetzler, chairman of Palo Alto Calif.-based Strategic Decisions Group,” Building organizational decision competence, in his long experience, is achievable. It creates a huge value opportunity with relatively little attached cost. I know of nothing else that can give you so much bang for the buck in terms of significantly increasing in the value of an organization”(qtd. in Luecke). One example from General Motors shows the power of teams at work. Vincent Barabba, the general manager of corporate strategy and knowledge development, started dialog decision process teams or DDP.
The DDP involves two teams, a decision team comprising executives with power to allocate resources and an investigative team made up of managers and employees with relevant expertise and experience. This cast of characters brings knowledgeable people with different perspectives and responsibilities to problems and opportunities. (qtd. in Luecke)
The decision team would define problems and issues from their senior leadership perspective. The investigative team would analyze the problem or issue, consider metrics effected such as cost, quality, risk, and return on investment. The team would offer solutions options or a combination of solution options to the



Cited: Davenport, Thomas H. "Make Better Decisions - Harvard Business Review." Harvard Business Review Case Studies. The Magazine, Nov. 2009. Web. 19 Nov. 2011. Fisher, Kimball. “Leading Self-directed Work Teams: a Guide to Developing New Team Leadership Skills.” New York: McGraw-Hill, 2000. 16. Print. Francis, K. A. "Group Vs Individual Decision Making for a Business." Chron.com. Demand Media. Web. 10 Nov. 2011. Johnson, David W., and Frank P. Johnson. "Individual versus Group Decision Making." Joining Together: Group Theory and Group Skills. Ninth ed. Boston: Pearson Allyn and Bacon, 2006. 270-91. Print. Kocher, Martin, and Matthias Sutter. "Teams Make Better Decisions Than Individuals." Economic Journal January (2005). Teams Make Better Decisions than Individuals. RES Media Consultant Romesh Vaitilingam, Jan. 2005. Web. 15 Nov. 2011. Luecke, Richard. "Make Better Decisions - Harvard Management Update - Best Practices - Harvard Business Review." HBR Network - Harvard Business Review. Harvard Management Update, Apr. 2006. Web. 19 Nov. 2011. Lumsden, Gay, and Donald L. Lumsden. Communicating in Groups and Teams: Sharing Leadership. 3rd ed. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth Pub, 2000. 185 Print. Robbins, Harvey, and Michael Finley. Why Teams Don 't Work: What Went Wrong and How to Make It Right. Princeton, NJ: Peterson 's/Pacesetter, 1995. 42-5. Print. Scholtes, Peter R., Brian L. Joiner, and Barbara J. Streibel. "The Power of Teams." The Team Handbook. Third ed. Madison, WI: Oriel, 2003. 1-1. Print. "Team Decisions Better for the Weary; Group of Tired People Can Make Better Choices than a Tired Individual." Consumer Health News 22 Aug. 2011, General Reference Center GOLD sec. GALE. Web. 8 Nov. 2011.

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Better Essays

    Callaway , M. R. , & Esser, J. K. . (1984). Groupthink: effects of cohesiveness and problem-solving procedures on group decision making. Social Behavior and Personality, 12(2), 157-164.…

    • 1237 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    pm 582 week1

    • 1429 Words
    • 6 Pages

    Varney, G. H. (1989). Building productive teams: An action guide and resource book. San Francisco, CA: Josey-Bass, Inc.…

    • 1429 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Better Essays

    Kaye, B., & Hogan, J. (1999). Improve teamwork. Executive Excellence, 16(6), 17. Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/204610635?accountid=458…

    • 994 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Dia Communication Plan

    • 6799 Words
    • 28 Pages

    Thompson, Leigh L. (2012). Making the Team: A Guide for Managers [4] (Vital Source Bookshelf, http://online.vitalsource.com/books/9781256306429/id/ch10fn17…

    • 6799 Words
    • 28 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    This paper is the final component in group decision making. The Learning Team will review each step of the previous team assignments and generate a final business decision with executive recommendations. The assignment should provide data and examples for the recommended decision, and persuade the audience that this is the correct decision. The ability to persuade the audience to your recommendation is a valuable skill in the business environment.…

    • 255 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    Two well-known contributors in the team decision making field recently published a book on best practices (Sunstein & Hastie, 2015). Sunstein and Hastie argued that current techniques in team decision making have neglected research and, as a result, have a tendency to end unfruitfully. This neglect is problematic, as research shows that teams can potentially outperform individuals and there are tasks that only cross-functional teams with complementary skills can perform (Hinz, Tindale, & Vollrath, 1997; Kerr & Tindale, 2004; van Ginkel, Tindale, & van Knippenberg, 2009; Kameda, Tsukasaki, Hastie, & Berg, 2010). The proliferating use of team-based structures has left many in the current workforce with important decisions to make, but potentially…

    • 3546 Words
    • 15 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Effective Groups

    • 1262 Words
    • 6 Pages

    References: Johnson, D.W., & Johnson, F.P. (2006). Joining together: Group theory and group skills (9th ed.).…

    • 1262 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    LaFasto, F., & Larson, C. (2008). When Teams Work Best. In J.L. Pierce, & J.W. Newstrom…

    • 1692 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    “I think that decision making is the fundamental challenge for organizations that aspire to be collaborative. There are a lot of things we can do to solicit input, to involve people, to inform people, but so often the rubber hits the road at decision points, when a group of people have to sit around a table or in a circle and deliberate around a specific decision, and the mindset and the skill set and the methods are important here. And an organization and leaders need to invest in those things if they want to move toward skillful collaboration.” (Dressler, 2013). I could not agree more with Larry Dressler in his speech in Decision-Making as a Skillful Collaboration. He helped define decision making and in the Destination…

    • 663 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Effective decision-making is a major component in managing an organization, resources, and staff members. Managers may make dozens of important decisions daily that affect the operations, quality, and success of their organization. Not all managers have the natual ability to be effective decision-makers but that does not mean this is an unatainable skill. With the use of tools and intelligent use of resources, this skill can be developed and improved to help managers make the most of their formal decision-making.…

    • 934 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    These kinds of decisions are better made in a group rather than by an individual for many reasons. A group decision has the ability to be more creative…

    • 580 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    Team Communication

    • 1183 Words
    • 5 Pages

    Bragg, T. (1999, May). Turn around an ineffective team. IIE Solutions, 31(5), 49-51. Retrieved July 22, 2007, from ProQuest database…

    • 1183 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Team-Case Study

    • 2909 Words
    • 12 Pages

    Fisher, B.A., & Ellis, D. (1993). Small group decision making (4th ed.). Los Angeles: McGraw-Hill.…

    • 2909 Words
    • 12 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Better Essays

    The ever changing market that exists today has brought about the idea of bringing multiple individuals with diverse backgrounds together and creating work groups. These work groups are becoming the norm in many companies. Work groups are generally but in place to tackle projects that would be better served by a group rather than an individual. One of the most important functions of a group is the ability to make effective decisions. The text describes that a group decision implies that an agreement is made among the members to determine which course of action is most effective for achieving the group’s goal. The purpose of group decision making is to decide on well-considered, well understood, realistic action toward goals every member wishes to achieve (Johnson and Johnson, 2009). Not only is it important for the group to make a decision together, they need to focus on making the most appropriate decision for the matter at hand. The text list five major characteristics of an effective group decision; the resources of group members are fully utilized, time is well used, the decision is correct or of high quality, the decision is implemented fully by all the required group members, and the problem solving ability of the group is improved, or at least not lessened (Johnson and Johnson, 2009). In this paper I will describe the group to which I belong and how the five characteristics of an effective group decision apply to the overall decision made by the group.…

    • 2297 Words
    • 10 Pages
    Better Essays

Related Topics