In the process of conducting socio-psychological observations, it was repeatedly proved that group methods of decision-making in practice turned out to be more effective than those that were taken on an individual basis. Group decision-making methods are used today in many areas of public life.
The group decision phenomenon
For the first time, experiments with such a socio-psychological phenomenon as group decision were carried out in the United States during the Second World War. Then the industry was faced with the task of changing the attitude of buyers to some food products and, in particular, by-products, which were trying to replace meat. Several groups of housewives participated in the experiment. One group was only lectured about the benefits of this type of product and the desirability of purchasing by-products instead of meat, in the other several groups discussions and discussions were held in which all members of the group participated. After a while, it turned out that in the first group the opinion about the proposed new products changed only by 3%, while in the other groups the loyalty to offal increased by 32%.
Psychologists who studied this phenomenon explained this phenomenon by the fact that the passive participants in the discussion from the first group made a decision each independently, without having social group support and based only on their past experience. The members of the group discussions felt responsible for making a common decision, and this weakened the inertia of thinking and resistance to innovation. When everyone saw that the rest of the group was also biased in favor of a certain solution, this strengthened his own position. This decision was not imposed and that is why it was made by the group.
Group decision making methods
Several basic methods are currently used to make group decisions. So, the method "Brainstorming" or "Consensus" is based on an open discussion of initial unsystematic individual ideas, on the basis of which a consensus or decision is then developed. In some cases, opinions are expressed in writing and five rounds of discussion are held. This variant of Brainstorming is called "635".
When there is plenty of time for discussion, the Targeted Discussion Method is used. The group decision is made during an open discussion between experts and is determined by open voting. Its disadvantage is openness, which in some cases can lead to confrontation with authorities. One of the effective methods is the "Inversion Method", when group members can express any associative opinions, even absurd and illogical. For this method, the role of the leader is very important - it requires great competence and special attention.
The “Delphi Method”, which uses multiple anonymous individual statements, after which the discussion is conducted in writing, can also be attributed to the popular ones. After several rounds, the participants, as a rule, manage to find a common solution to the problem posed to them.
