In an article entitled, separating the confident from the correct: Leveraging member knowledge in groups to improve decision making and performance Bryan L. Bonner and Alexander R. Bolinger scrutinize interventions that will help improve group’s performance and decision making. The subsequent research that was undertaken entailed instructing group members to search for relevant information they already possess and pertinent to the problem being solved. Consequently, the group members were then required to estimate values and level of their confidence both individually and in a group. Ensuing the research several hypothesis were formulated. The following are the hypothesis that were formulated prior the actual study.
- A considerable percentage of the associated knowledge reclaimed from an interactive group framework will entail a process variety compared to that spawned by comparison individuals.
- Contrary to the extroversion model, the confidence model will adequately concur with the data without intervention.
- A model concomitant with the notion or rather the assumption that confident members have a profound influence in a group’s decision making will not be discarded for group appraisals in circumstances where group members are not prompted to put into consideration their associated knowledge.
- Median comparison individuals will be outperformed by the groups.
- Those groups that will receive knowledge transfer intervention will outperform those individuals in a group that does not knowledge transfer intervention.
- Individuals receiving knowledge transfer interventions before the actual group interaction will underperform contrary to those that will receive knowledge transfer interventions within an interactive group context.
Apparently, the findings in this research can generalize to other situations, in addition to those mentioned in the research article. Ensuing the fact that people interact and work as groups in a way many situations, this study suggests that a better approach in solving a problem or rather making reciprocal decisions is to allow people to undertake information such using any pertinent method available as the initial move towards problem solving process. This will essentially allow them understand the scope of the problem and other people’s competencies. In this way, those interacting will boost their relationship as well as their decision making capabilities.
The information retrieved from this research has profound significance and implications to the way businesses manage knowledge workers. Though it is more applicable to student’s interactions, findings retrieved from this study establishes that, by encouraging workers to search for relevant and important information that will help them solve workplace problems during their interactions will lead to accurate outcomes. The findings in this research further accentuate that, encouraging workers to find ways on how to solve problems enhances the ease of communication among workers, additionally, communications help workers understand the advantage of member input hence enhancing problem solving and cumulative understanding. Subsequent to the fact that findings retrieved from the study were concurrent with the claims attested by the existing literature, alternative explanations to the findings were ruled out.
The findings retrieved from the study effectively supported hypothesis 1, 3, 5 and 6 while disapproving hypotheses 2 and 4. Following the fact that most of the formulated hypothesis were approved subsequent to the research, what this implies to people working in real organizations is that, it is crucial to conduct information search independently from others before making a cumulative decision, in this way a real organization will be in a good position to deduce member input.
Conclusion
Arguably, considering that the research involved undergraduate students from the University of Utah, the results or rather the findings are not only applicable to me but also my fellow students. Outstanding the fact that the findings retrieved in the research establishes the importance of information search and collective decision making, the findings from this research will enable students make credible and exemplary decisions by essentially engaging themselves into information search activities prior the discussions. By incorporating the use of a system where one has to search for information beforehand making a decision with his or her group members as suggested by the findings, we as students will be able to solve way many problems particularly those that relate to our class work.
Subsequent to the fact that the findings deduced from this research concur with the previous research on the same subject, the conclusions drawn can be perceived to be valid. Essentially, this research has significant implications to the way we undertake our day to day activities that entail interactions and technicalities. As professed by this research, knowledge workers, students and those in technical fields are encouraged to search for relevant knowledge that will essentially help them solve their problems ensuing the fact that conducting information search before involving into a decision making process will enhance the quality of the outcome. The research findings in this study further accentuates that, the best approach to make a decision is to allow the groups undertake information search (using any means possible) rather than provide them with information. The research ascertains the fact that, providing groups with information will prevent them from reaching their full potential they could have attained if allowed to conduct their own information search.
