EXAMINING THE IMPACT OF THE STRUCTURAL VARIABLE OF NORMS ON THE TEAM DECISION-MAKING PROCESS

PART 1 OF 3

 

Introduction

Our entire society functions through the organisations of which it is comprised. Most organisations make decisions within team settings.  Such decision-making has far reaching consequences. This becomes even more apparent when one realises that the process of decision-making is embedded in nearly every facet of our society, whether it be political, legislative, judicial, or economic, as these social systems function through decisions made by teams (Ellis & Fisher, 1994; Fisher, 1974).  Although we are often unaware of the pervasive influence of team decisions, the effects of those decisions on our lives are inescapable.  Furthermore, one can also argue that the solution to every social problem – crime, poverty, inflation, unemployment, denial of human rights – is ultimately dependent on effective decisions made by teams concerned with and able to cope with those social ills (Ellis & Fisher, 1994; Fisher, 1974).  When one takes note of the relative importance of the process of team decision-making in context, one can also note the widespread devastating effects ineffective decisions can have.  These can include economic, social, and political effects.

 

Ultimately one must realise then that the highly prevalent nature of the decision-making team in society has resulted in the situation where the outcome of the decision-making process holds serious implications for the team itself, for the organisation of which they form a part of and for society as a whole.  For this reason it becomes that much more important to take any steps necessary to ensure that the integrity of the team decision-making process is maintained or even enhanced.

 

The key question is: are team’s better decision-makers than individuals? Lorge and his colleagues (in Davis, 1969), made an extensive and critical review of the literature up to 1958 in this regard and concluded that generally speaking, teams outperform individuals.  Davis (1969) also states that teams are more likely than individuals to come up with a correct response, they make fewer errors, and frequently they arrive earlier at a response or learning criterion.  However, the superiority of the team all too frequently is not as great as would be expected.  In fact many studies show that often the product of the “best” individual is superior to that of the “best team” (Baron, Kerr & Miller, 1992; Collins & Guetzkow, 1964).  So who is better, individuals or teams?  This is not a question that can be answered definitively either way rather it should simply be answered as follows: “It depends—!”  What is clear, however, is that an awareness of all variables that impact on the quality of team decision-making need to be explored and understood in order to ensure that decisions made by teams are of as high a quality as is possible given the context in which they find themselves. 

 

A review of literature reveals that variables impacting on team decision-making quality can be divided into two broad categories, namely: (1) Variables related to the team’s structure and (2) Variables related to team processes. Literature also reveals that the nature of the relationship between each of these variables is highly complex and well beyond the focus of an article of this nature.  For this reason this article and the two that follow will narrow its focus to the exploring of the effects of the structural variable of team norms on the team’s decision-making process.  The reason for selecting this particular variable as a point of examination is simple.  Team norms perform an important regulatory function in small teams indicating to us then that the said variable should have a significant impact on the team decision-making process. 

 

Norms Defined

Norms can be divided into two categories namely descriptive norms and prescriptive norms.  Descriptive norms define what most people would do, feel, or think in a particular situation while prescriptive norms describe the sorts of behaviours people ought to perform (Forsyth, 1999).  Norms, therefore, provide team members with guidance regarding how they should and should not behave.  They also provide them with a means of predicting the behaviour of their fellow team members.  Norms tend to emerge naturally irrespective of whether the team members specifically discuss them or not. However, if norms are not openly discussed, debated and agreed upon by the team members, in the early stages of team development, it may result in reduced commitment from team members later on. 

 

Specific team norms can either have a facilitating or inhibiting effect on team performance and team decision-making.

 

These will be discussed in the next two articles so be sure to tune in! And remember Trigon is always on hand to assist you directly with any queries you might have on this or any topics related to team optimisation. 

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