Group Decision-Making Performance as Influenced by Consensus and Self-Orientation. Paper No. 426

The study attempts to specify and verify the decisionmaking processes utilized by groups when faced with a multistage rating task. It is also designed to upgrade group efficacy by introducing some procedural guidelines which group members are asked to follow in resolving differences. This "structured" intervention encourages members to seek out differences of opinion and dissuades them from using "conflict-reducing" techniques such as majority vote or trading. In addition the study examines aspects of interpersonal styles on group functioning, in particular self-oriented, individualistic behavior which is apparently dysfunctional to group processes. The major implication of the study is that it is indeed possible to improve group performance, even in groups with potentially"poor" members, via a simple structures intervention. (Author/WM)