The Use of Distributed Information in Decision Making Groups

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The Erasmus Research Institute of Management (ERIM) is the Research School (Onderzoekschool) in the field of management of the Erasmus University Rotterdam. The founding participants of ERIM are RSM Erasmus University and the Erasmus School of Economics. ERIM was founded in 1999 and is officially accredited by the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences (KNAW). The research undertaken by ERIM is focussed on the management of the firm in its environment, its intra- and inter-firm relations, and its business processes in their interdependent connections. The objective of ERIM is to carry out first rate research in management, and to offer an advanced graduate program in Research in Management. Within ERIM, over two hundred senior researchers and Ph.D. candidates are active in the different research programs. From a variety of academic backgrounds and expertises, the ERIM community is united in striving for excellence and working at the forefront of creating new business knowledge.

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The Use of Distributed Information in Decision Making Groups

ERIM

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Organizations frequently rely on groups for purposes of decision making, because groups are supposed to posses more relevant informational resources than individuals, which should allow them to make higher-quality decisions. Yet, research has shown that groups tend to be quite poor users of their informational resources. That is, information that only one of the group members possesses gets exchanged less than information that all members possess. Moreover, when this information does get exchanged, groups often fail to adequately integrate it in coming to a decision. This can lead to lowerquality decisions than when groups fully capitalize upon individual members’ unique information. It therefore is of importance to identify factors that affect decision-making groups’ use of distributed information. In the present research I argue that group members’ understanding of their task and its informational requirements is critical for groups’ use of distributed information. A fundamental reason for groups’ insufficient information use seems to be that groups often fail to see the necessity of elaborating on distributed information. Group members’ understanding of the decision-making task often seems to centre more on the need to find common ground than on the discussion of information. In the present dissertation I examine the effect of groups’ understanding of their decision task, as reflected in their shared task representations, on groups’ use of distributed information by means of a series of experiments. I show that when groups hold task representations that stress the value of exchanging and integration distributed information before coming to a decision, they discuss more distributed information and make higher-quality decisions. In addition, I identify several factors, like group reflexivity and leadership, that are able to influence the development of shared task representations and therefore also group information use and performance in decision making groups with distributed information.

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The Role of Shared Task Representations

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The Use of Distributed Information in Decision Making Groups

W E N D Y VA N G I N K E L

The Use of Distributed Information in Decision Making Groups The Role of Shared Task Representations


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