Decision Making in Groups and Effective Communication

You are a consultant hired to help improve the productivity of Celia Jane, a medium-sized furniture design firm. Celia Jane always kept up with the competition but now would like to gain some market share and expand its business.

Traditionally, employees at Celia Jane work in groups of eight. Li, the CEO of Celia Jane, believes that working in groups aids creativity and productivity. As the consultant, however, you know that working in groups also has some negative consequences.

Explain to Li the factors that lead to ineffective decision making in groups, taking into consideration the following terms:

Social loafing
Free riding
The sucker effect
Process loss
Groupthink
How does each factor affect the organization’s productivity?

How will you determine the stage of group development that the groups are currently in, and how will this influence your suggestions to Li?

What suggestions will you make to Li about how he can maximize the productivity of the work groups?

Li also believes that one great advantage of working in groups is brainstorming. As the consultant, suggest what he can do to ensure brainstorming is as effective as possible.

Using what we have learned regarding communication, write a plan which explains the best way for Li to effectively communicate his expectations regarding group work to his employees.

For this assignment and all Dropbox assignments, you are required to cite, at a minimum, the online course and the textbook for the course.  Additional sources are welcome. Scholarly sources are preferred and can be found through Argosy University online library resources.  Please see the Library and Tutoring Services section under Course Home to use Argosy University online library resources.  Additional, non-scholarly sources from reputable Web and print sources are also acceptable. For reputable Web sources, look for .org, .net, or .edu sites as opposed to .com sites. Avoid Wikipedia.

Use APA standards.