1. Team Decision Making Karl A. Smith Nanyang Business School
Engineering Education – Purdue University
Technological Leadership Institute/ STEM Education Center/ Civil Engineering - University of Minnesota -
Nanyang Business School
Nanyang Technological University
Teaching Strategies for Cooperative Learning Workshop
December 12-15, 2011

2. Teamwork Skills
Communication
Listening and Persuading
Decision Making
Conflict Management
Leadership
Trust and Loyalty

3. Decision-Making Approaches
Objective
Deterministic
Stochastic
Multiple
Ranking
AHP
SMART
MAUT
Single
B/C LP
Optimization
Decision Tree (EV)
Simulation

4. Team Decision Making – Ranking Tasks
Typically “survival” tasks
First was Moon Survival, “Lost on the moon” developed by Jay Hall for NASA in 1967
Many survival tasks available – desert survival, lost at sea, winter survival, …
Individual followed by team ranking
Different decision-making conditions in each team

5. Team Member Roles Observer/ Process Recorder (non participant role)
Facilitator/Time Keeper
Task Recorder
Skeptic/Prober 5

6. 6 Action Name 1 Name 2 Name 3 Name 4 Total Contributes Ideas Describes
Feelings
Encourages
Participation
Summarizes, Integrates
Checks for
Understanding
Relates New To Old Learning
Gives Direction To Work 6

7. Team Decision Making… World Mortality Causes
Below in alphabetical order, are listed the top causes of death in the world in The data were taken from the World Health Organization (WHO) Report. Your task is to rank them in order. Place the number 1 next to the item that is the most frequent cause of death, the number 2 next to the item that is the second most frequent, and so on. Then, in the last column, write in your estimate of the number of death per year.
To Group Members: TASKS
1. Individually determine the ranking.
2. Determine one ranking for the group.
3. Every group member must be able to explain the rationale for the group's ranking.
4. When your group finishes (each member has signed), (a) record your estimated number of fatalities in the World for each, and then (b) compare your ranking with that of another group.

8. World Mortality Causes
Product or Activity Ranking Number of Fatalities
Cancer
Childhood Diseases
Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease
Cirrhosis of the liver
Diarrheal diseases
Heart Disease
HIV/AIDS
Hypertensive heart disease
Lower respiratory infections
Malaria
Measles
Nephritis/nephrosis
Other unintentional injuries
Road traffic accidents
Self-inflicted
Stroke
Tuberculosis

9. World Mortality Causes - 20031
Heart Disease
8,119,000 2
Stroke
5,509,000 3
Lower respiratory infections
3,884,000 4
Cancer
3,333,000 5
HIV/AIDS
2,777,000 6
Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease
2,748,000 7
Diarrheal diseases
1,798,000 8
Tuberculosis
1,566,000 9
Malaria
1,272,000 10
Road traffic accidents
1,192,000 11
Childhood Diseases
1,124,000 12
Other unintentional injuries - Accidents
923,000 13
Hypertensive heart disease
911,000 14
Self-inflicted
873,000 15
Cirrhosis of the liver
786,000 16
Nephritis/nephrosis
677,000 17
Measles
611,000

12. US Mortality Causes - 2003 1 Heart disease 684462 2 Cancer 554643 3
Stroke
157803 4
Lung disease
126128 5
Accidents
105695 6
Diabetes
73965 7
Influenza and pneumonia
64847 8
Alzheimer's disease
63343 9
Kidney disease (Nephritis/nephrosis)
42536 10
Blood poisoning
34243 11
Suicide
30642 12
Liver disease
27201 13
Hypertension
21841 14
Parkinson’ disease
17898 15
Pneumonitis
17457

14. Postdecision Questionaire
How understood and listened to did you feel in your group?
Not at all 1 – 2 – 3 – 4 – 5 – 6 – 7 – 8 – 9 Completely
2. How much influence do you feel you had in your group’s decision making?
None 1 – 2 – 3 – 4 – 5 – 6 – 7 – 8 – 9 A great deal
How committed do you feel to the decision your group made?
4. How much responsibility do you feel for making the decision work?
5. How satisfied do you feel with the amount and quality of your participation in your group’s decision making
Dissatisfied 1 – 2 – 3 – 4 – 5 – 6 – 7 – 8 – 9 Satisfied
6. Write one adjective that describes the atmosphere in your group during the decision making

15. Team Decision-Making Process
How
Individual
Mathematical
Consensus
Iterative – H, M, L
Both ends toward the middle
Assumptions/Biases
Family/Friends
News
Youth
Geographic location

16. Methods of Decision Making
(Johnson & Johnson, 1991)
Decision by authority without discussion
Expert member
Average of member’s opinions
Decision by authority after discussion
Majority control
Minority control
Consensus
See Table Summarizing Characteristics – Smith (2007), p. 46

17. Johnson, D.W. & Johnson, F.P. 1991. Joining together: Group theory and group skills. Prentice-Hall

18. Choice of Decision-Making Method
Depends On:
1. The type of decision to be made.
2. The amount of time and resources available.
The history of the group.
The nature of the task being worked on
The kind of climate the groups wishes to establish
The type of setting in which the group is working
Johnson & Johnson, 1991

19. Characteristics of Effective Decisions:
The resources of the group members are well used.
Time is well used.
The decision is correct, or of high quality.
The decision is put into effect fully by all the necessary members' commitment.
The problem-solving ability of the group is enhanced.
Johnson & Johnson, 1991