Small Group - Chapter 11

1. Of the three types of decision making (consensus, majority vote, by the leader), which do you prefer and why?


I definitely prefer the majority vote out of the three types of decision making. This way all parties simultaneously get to have their say, but the decision is made quickly and efficiently. It also allows the decision to reflect the majority of the group’s opinions.

The only time that this is not necessarily preferable would be when the minority actually have the better opinion, but are not given the chance to defend their choice. In these cases, if there is not enough deliberation time before the vote is taken, the decision will follow that of the majority but not necessarily be the best decision.

2. Think of the best (or worst) group decision you’ve ever been involved with, then describe how that decision was made. What were the factors that made it such a good (or bad) decision?

One of the best group decisions I have ever been involved with took place one day after a group of my friends and I took our final for a night class we had together. It had been a particularly frustrating class and we all agreed we needed to celebrate its completion. While in most formal, and usually informal settings, I prefer an autocratic leader to either emerge or be appointed. This night was very different, however. Ashley emerged as the leader, because she had a car to transport us to where we decided to celebrate. Instead of being democratic or autocratic, however, she was very laissez-faire and simply allowed us to decide where we wanted to go and what we wanted to do. We reached a consensus that we wanted to take a spontaneous road trip, but we were unsure where to go. We then discussed the different possibilities, such as going to New Orleans, going to the beach, going to Mobile, going to Jackson, or going to Meridian. We were sure that we did not necessarily want to go anywhere farther than any of those cities, so we discussed the pros and cons of each city. Since we had recently each been to New Orleans and the beach, we decided to eliminate both of those destinations. We discussed the last three possibilities and finally decided on Jackson by way of Morton. We then spent the rest of the night surprising my (then) boyfriend at his night job, and going to Waffle House in Jackson before returning home.

While most people would say that going to Jackson outskirts in the middle of the night just to go to Waffle House would be one of the worst group decisions ever, we definitely disagree! That trip allowed us to bond in ways that we had not been able to before. We also agree that allowing the group to discuss and collaborate on the destination, instead of one person making the decision for the group, also made the trip very enjoyable.