GROUP PROCESS AND DECISION MAKING

Group Process and Decision Making

Group Process and Decision Making

Introduction

A team is a group of individuals that are brought together to accomplish a task or resolve a problem that cannot be successfully or proficiently completed by an individual. How much time the team must spend together can affect the ability of the team members to work together. The asset verification team is a group of individuals of varying expertise and experience who work together on a day to day basis. The group has been assigned to determine why the central office technicians are making so many scanning errors or card add jobs. It is standard procedure that when a card is replaced it is to be scanned out of its designated slot and the replacement scanned into that same slot. There have been many trouble tickets coming from they systems department reporting missing card. The cards are not in fact missing, just not properly scanned in.

Discussion

The team consists of 11 members; one leader, five with ten years experience and five with four years experience. The leader of the group is the Section Manager, who has both decision making and problem solving skills and strengths. In other words, the section manager had the ability to pass judgment on an issue that is under consideration and “the act of reaching a conclusion or making up one's mind.” (Ertmer, 1993, 22) The problem solving skills are the ability to analyze problems and develop a plan of action.

Another strength that the section manager has is the experience working in the group for thirteen years as both a specialist and a section manager. Therefore the section manager can intelligently discuss the problem with the technicians and their scanning error without the need of a subordinate explaining what it means and how it affects the asset verification team. The section manager has the ability to understand the issue, this includes problem identification and fact finding; determine solution criteria, establishing criteria or standards for a solution; identify possible solutions; review the pros and cons of each suggestion from the team and finally select the best option to solve the problem.

The major drawback suffered by the section manager was the simple fact that she had worked previously with the team members with ten years experience. This caused suspicion and distrust among those with less years. It was a constant struggle to keep the team focused on ...