In Mixed Company
Chapter Seven
Defective Group Decision
Making and Problem Solving
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Group Decision Making and
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Information Overload:
Too Much of Good Thing
• Information is the raw material of group
decision making and problem solving.
• Information overload occurs when the rate
of information flow into a system and/or
the complexity of that information exceed
the system’s processing capacity.
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Information Sometimes
Impairs Critical Thinking
• A glut of information makes it very difficult
to distinguish useless from the useful
information.
• Critical thinking and effective decision
making are hampered because group
members have trouble digging through the
garbage heap of useless information to
discover the treasured nugget.
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Information Bulimia
• Information bulimia is a binge-and-purge cycle of
information processing.
– Cramming for an exam.
• We become so focused on the quantity of
information that we hardly is substandard.
• Little information is retained, no meaningful
decision have been made in the process; no
vital answers to problems have been
discovered.
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Group Attention Deficit Disorder:
Difficulty Concentrating
• When cell phones and pagers go off
during group meetings, classes, and the
like everyone is distracted and attention is
diverted from decision making and
problem solving.
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Coping with Information Overload
• Screening Information: Separating the
Useful form the Useless
– Screening information much like you do
phone calls by simply choosing to ignore
much of the information is one effective
method of coping with information overload.
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Specializing Knowing More and
More about Less and Less
• When you specialize you can manage to
know a lot about a little.
• No individual or group can possibly
manage information sufficiently so that
experts on vital subjects will never be
required.
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Becoming Selective:
On a Need-to-Know Basis
• Another method of coping with information
overload is selectivity.
• Setting group priorities helps members select
which information requires their urgent attention
and which can be delayed or ignored entirely.
• Setting priorities distinguishes what we need to
know from what there is to know.
• Selecting the specific information that is required
avoids burial by the information dump truck.
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Limiting the Search:
When Enough is Enough
• The search for information must stop at
some point to allow time to reflect and
evaluate information.
• Setting deadlines fro group decisions is
critical, deadlines force a group to bring a
search for information to a halt.
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Information Underload
• Information underload refers to an insufficient
amount of information (inadequate input)
available to a group for decision-making
purpose.
• Increasing the quantity of irrelevant or minimally
useful information will confuse rather than assist
the group in making effective decisions and
solving problems.
• Mindsets are psychological and cognitive
predispositions to see the world in a particular
way.
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The Problem:
Poor Decisions and Solutions
• The consequences of confirmation bias to group
decision making and problem solving are serious.
Looking for the potential weaknesses and disconfirming
evidence regarding decisions and solutions is a
significant element of effective, group decision making
and problem solving.
• Confirmation bias was common.
– Positive information about a candidate that each subject initially
favored was readily shared and discussed with group members;
negative information, however, was about disfavored candidates
but positive information was not.
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Combating Confirmation Bias:
A Plan
•
The competent communicator combats
the problem of confirmation bias by
taking the following steps:
1. Seek disconfirmation and evidence
2. Vigorously present disconfirming
evidence to the group.
3. Play devils advocate
4. Gather allies to help challenge
confirmation bias.
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False Dichotomies:
Either-or Thinking
• A false dichotomy is the tendency to view
the world in terms of only two opposing
possibilities when other possibilities are
available, and to describe this dichotomy
in the language of extremes.
• Describing objects, events, and people in
such extreme polarities as more-immoral,
good-bad, rich-poor, locks us into a
mindset of narrow vision.
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False Dichotomies
•
The competent communicator combats the
problem of false dichotomies in small groups as
follows:
1. Be suspicious of absolutes- when group
members argue only two extreme possibilities,
look for a third or even fourth possibility.
2. Employ the language of provisionalism. You
will be using terms such as sometimes, rarely,
occasionally, mostly, usually, unlikely, and
moderately, not always, never, or impossible.
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Inferences
• Inferences are conclusions about the unknown
based on what is known.
• The principal problem with inferences is that we
too often assume our inferences are mere
descriptions of fact, even when they rest on
insufficient or faulty information
• If we don't exercise our critical thinking abilities
by closely examining important inferences
central to decision making in groups, bad
decisions are highly likely to result.
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Limited Information Base:
Information Insufficiency
• Inferential error resulting from severely
limited information is equally problematic
for a group.
• Group members are prone to make
inferences based on extremely limited or
faulty information without even realizing
that they have made a guess, and not
identified a fact.
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Specified Sources of
Inferential Errors
• The graphic, outrageous, controversial event
draws our attention and sticks in our minds, that
is called the vividness effect.
• We tend to overvalue shocking example and
undervalue statistical information that shows
patterns and trends.
• Unrepresentativeness distorting the facts- when
we make a judgment, we assess the
resemblance or accuracy of an object or event
presumed to belong to a general category.
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Correlation Inferred as Causations
• A third specific source of inferential error is
correlation. A correlation is a consistent
relationship between two or more
variables. The are two kinds of
correlations: positive and negative.
• A positive correlation occurs when X
increases and Y also increases.
• A negative correlation occurs when X
increases and Y decreases.
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Error Correction:
Practicing Critical Thinking
•
Group discussion promotes higher-quality of
decision making when the following conditions
occur:
1. The validity of inferences is carefully examined.
2. Inferences are grounded in valid and plentiful
information.
3. As least one member of the group exerts
influence to guide the group toward higherquality decisions.
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General Conditions: Excessive
Cohesiveness and Concurrence Seeking
• Groupthink- a mode of thinking that people engage in
when they are deeply involved in a cohesive in-group,
when the members’ strivings for unanimity override their
motivation to realistically appraise alternative courses of
action.
• Cohesiveness and its companion, concurrence-seeking,
are the two general conditions necessary for groupthink
to occur.
• Groupthink is rooted in excessive cohesiveness and a
resulting pressure to present a united front to those
outside of the group.
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Identification of Groupthink:
Main Symptoms
• Overestimation of the groups power and
morality.
• Closed-mindedness, clinging to assumptions.
– Closed-mindedness is manifested by rationalizations
that discount warnings or negative information that
might cause the group to rethink its basic
assumptions.
• Pressures toward Uniformity
– To maintain uniformity of opinion and behavior among
group members.
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Preventing Groupthink:
Promoting Vigilance
• Groups must become vigilant decision makers.
Vigilant decision making requires that several
steps be taken.
• First, members must recognize the problem of
groupthink as it begins to manifest itself.
• Second, the group must minimize status
differences, high status members exert a
disproportionate influence on lower-status group
members.
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Preventing Groupthink:
Promoting Vigilance
• Seeking information that challenges an
emerging occurrence.
• Close related , developing a norm in the group
that legitimizes disagreement during discussion
sessions is a final way to prevent groupthink.
• Reminder role- the reminder raise questions in a
non-aggressive manner regarding collective
inferential error, confirmation bias, false
dichotomies, and any of he myriad symptoms of
groupthink that may arise.
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