Team Decision Making
Team Decision Making
Team decision making can be very beneficial. First what’s a team? A team is a group of people coming together to achieve a common goal. “Teams are an increasingly important structure in many organizations as they promise to simplify processes, enhance participation, and add a competitive advantage”. A team has a wide variety of skill sets. These skills come from each member of the team. In the process of being on the team each member of the team will learn from other members and it will give that individual more skills. For example if you and your team are working on a project and one member is helping you to do something you didn’t know how to do when he or she is finished helping you, you will also have the skill because you were just shown. Teams can be a great thing but it can also be a difficult thing and can have its downsides. One pitfall of team decision making is groupthink. Groupthink occurs when team members place consensus above priority. Another pitfall is escalating of commitment. “Under some conditions, teams will persist with a losing course of action, even in the face of clear evidence to the contrary. This is known as the escalation of commitment phenomenon” . Another pitfall is the Abilene Paradox which results when teams try to avoid conflict. These are just some of the pitfalls but pitfalls can be worked out by doing things like appointing a devil’s advocate or confronting issues and setting limits. “Teams are often more effective when they have a mix of people who take on a preferred role” . The size of a team can also determine how effective the team is. The larger the team the more difficult it is to come up with a decision so making the teams smaller will be more effective. It is important that every team members plays a part in the team decision making or it will not be as effective. “Applying an understanding of
Team decision making can be very beneficial. First what’s a team? A team is a group of people coming together to achieve a common goal. “Teams are an increasingly important structure in many organizations as they promise to simplify processes, enhance participation, and add a competitive advantage”. A team has a wide variety of skill sets. These skills come from each member of the team. In the process of being on the team each member of the team will learn from other members and it will give that individual more skills. For example if you and your team are working on a project and one member is helping you to do something you didn’t know how to do when he or she is finished helping you, you will also have the skill because you were just shown. Teams can be a great thing but it can also be a difficult thing and can have its downsides. One pitfall of team decision making is groupthink. Groupthink occurs when team members place consensus above priority. Another pitfall is escalating of commitment. “Under some conditions, teams will persist with a losing course of action, even in the face of clear evidence to the contrary. This is known as the escalation of commitment phenomenon” . Another pitfall is the Abilene Paradox which results when teams try to avoid conflict. These are just some of the pitfalls but pitfalls can be worked out by doing things like appointing a devil’s advocate or confronting issues and setting limits. “Teams are often more effective when they have a mix of people who take on a preferred role” . The size of a team can also determine how effective the team is. The larger the team the more difficult it is to come up with a decision so making the teams smaller will be more effective. It is important that every team members plays a part in the team decision making or it will not be as effective. “Applying an understanding of