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Problem Solving and Decision Making in Groups 287

QUESTIONS FOR REVIEW

This chapter began with a description of a bad decision implemented? If you were in charge, whom would
made by a university’s registration staff regarding you have asked about possible risks?
imposing fees for dropped and added classes; it also 3. What do you see as the characteristics of the
included a detailed description of a school board that problem regarding too many student drop-adds?
used GSS to help decide two issues. How could the registration staff have modified
P-MOPS to fit their problem?
1. What do you see as the biggest problems with the
way the decision was made by the registration staff? 4. Which procedure—P-MOPS, Single Question, or Ideal
Which step or steps of P-MOPS seemed to have Solution—would you have used to discuss that issue?
been handled most poorly? 5. Exactly how did the GSS process help the school
2. What individuals or groups, in addition to the board? Which features of GSS helped the board
registration staff, could have participated in a RISK overcome its previous problems of not being able
session before the drop-add decision was actually to decide anything?

KEY TERMS

Test your knowledge of these key terms in this chapter. Definitions can be found in the Glossary.
Acceptance requirements Intrinsic interest RISK technique
Brainstorming Population familiarity Single Question Format
Brainwriting Problem census Solution multiplicity
Cooperative requirements Problem question Solution question
Electronic brainstorming Procedural Model of Task difficulty
Group Support Systems (GSS) or Problem Solving Technical requirements
Group Decision Support Systems (P-MOPS) Teleconference
(GDSS) Program Evaluation and Review
Ideal Solution Format Technique (PERT)

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Cathcart, Robert S., Larry A. Samovar, and Linda Larson, Carl E., and Frank M. J. LaFasto. TeamWork:
D. Henman, eds. Small Group Communication: What Must Go Right/What Can Go Wrong. Newbury
Theory and Practice. 7th ed. Madison, WI: Brown & Park, CA: Sage, 1989.
Benchmark, 1996, Section 3. McGrath, Joseph E., and Andrea Hollingshead. Groups
Hirokawa, Randy Y., and Marshall S. Poole, eds. Interacting with Technology. Thousand Oaks, CA:
Communication and Group Decision Making. Beverly Sage, 1994.
Hills, CA: Sage, 1986, 81–111. Shaw, Marvin E. Group Dynamics. 3rd ed. New York:
Jessup, Leonard M., and Joseph S. Valacich, eds. Group McGraw-Hill, 1981, Chapter 10.
Support Systems: New Perspectives. New York:
Macmillan, 1993.

NOTES

1. Carl E. Larson, “Forms of Analysis and Small When Teams Work Best: 6,000 Team Members and
Group Problem-Solving,” Speech Monographs, 36 Team Leaders Tell What It Takes to Succeed
(1969): 452–55; Frank La Fasto and Carl Larson, (Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage, 2001): 84–90.

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