Designing Groups for Judgmental Decisions

In order to design effective judgmental decision-making groups, consideration must be made of: 1. decision criteria, 2. situation characteristics, 3. membership, and 4. how the group functions. A model is proposed for synthesizing these elements. The interactions among the elements are formulated as design propositions which are integrated in a decision tree to guide practitioners and researchers. The model provides systematic guidance to managers who design judgmental decision-making groups and provides a framework for research into the effects of design decisions on decision outcomes. The model includes several important and representative variables in judgmental decision-making group formation.