Case Diagnostic Exercise: David Fletcher
You are David Fletcher and you are trying to think more carefully about the group process that makes the most sense given your goals and the nature of the decisions you are trying to make in your team. You decide to apply the leader-participation model developed by Vroom and Jago (pp. 235-239 of your text) to help you think through this issue. Vroom and Jago (1988) argued that the best approach to group decision-making will depend on factors such as the nature of the decisions being made, the information and time available to make those decisions, and the importance of group member commitment and learning. Together, these factors determine which of the following decision-making approaches will work best --
AI: You make the decisions yourself using the information available to you at the time.
AII: You obtain any necessary information from subordinates, then decide on solutions yourself. You may or may not tell subordinates the purpose of your questions or give information about the decisions on which you are working. The input provided by them is clearly in response to your request for specific information. They do not play a role in the definition of the problem or in generating or evaluating alternative solutions.
C1: You share problems with the relevant subordinates individually, getting their ideas and suggestions without bringing them together as a group. Then you make the decisions. These decisions may or may not reflect your subordinates' influence.
CII: You share problems with your subordinates in a group meeting. In this meeting, you obtain their ideas and suggestions. The ...