Group Decision Making

Despite the advances in argumentation on group decision negotiation there is a need to simulate and identify the personality of participants. To make participants' agents more human-like and to increase their flexibility in the negotiation process in group decision-making, the authors investigated the role of personality behaviours of participants applied to the conflict style theme. The negotiation is made in a bilateral way where both parties are OCEAN participant agents based on the five-factor model of personality (Openness, Conscientiousness, Extraversion, Agreeableness and Negative emotionality).

City logistics policies require an understanding of several issues (eg freight distribution context, preferences and relationship among agents) seldom accounted for in current research. Policies run the risk of producing unsatisfactory results because behavioural and contextual aspects are not considered. The acquisition of relevant data is crucial to test hypothesis and forecast agents' reactions to policy changes. Despite recent methodological advances in modelling interactive behaviour the development of apt survey instruments is ...

This meta-analysis summarized findings from 65 studies using the hidden profile paradigm (101 independent effects, 3,189 groups). Results showed (a) groups mentioned two standard deviations more pieces of common information than unique information; (b) hidden profile groups were eight times less likely to find the solution than were groups having full information; (c) two measures of information pooling, including the percentage of unique information mentioned out of total available information (the information coverage measure) and the percentage of unique information out of total discussion (the discussion focus measure), were positively related to decision quality, but the effect of information coverage was stronger than that of discussion focus; and communication medium did not affect (d) unique information pooling or (e) group decision quality. Group size, total information load, the proportion of unique information, task demonstrability, and hidden profile strength were found to moderate these effects. Results are discussed in terms of how they offer conceptual advancement for future hidden profile research.

This study assesses the effects of member expertise on group decision-making and group performance. Three-person cooperative groups and three independent individuals solved either an easy or moderately difficult version of the deductive logic game Mastermind. Experimental groups were given veridical performance information, i.e., the members' rankings on prior individual administrations of the task. Control groups were not provided with this information. Results supported the predictions of this study: (1) groups gave more weight to the input of their highest performing members with the group decision-making process being best approximated by post hoc ''expert weighted'' social decision schemes and (2) groups performed at the level of the best of an equivalent number of individuals. Ó 2002 Elsevier Science (USA). All rights reserved.

Criteria and indicators (C&I) have become primary tools in implementing the principle of sustainable resource management. To carry out this principle, it is necessary to develop methodologies that can holistically and systematically generate relevant indicators for a particular forest or resource management unit. This paper describes some methodologies that can be used as tools to carry out structured analysis of C&I. Multi-criteria analysis (MCA) is used as a decision-making tool to analyze and evaluate multiple C&I under a participatory group decision-making environment. Use of the method enables the generation of C&I, estimation of their relative importance, estimation of the performance of each indicator relative to its desired condition, and assessment of the indicators' combined effect or impact. In addition to generating C&I and estimating their relative importance and performance, the paper also presents a soft methodology, called cognitive mapping, which can be used to assess the crossindicator interaction, linkages, and connectivities of the indicators. The method attempts to evaluate the overall cumulative impacts of all indicators, individually and collectively, as they impact sustainability directly and indirectly through their interactions with other indicators. #

This research considers whether interpretive techniques can be used to enhance our understanding of computer-mediated discussions. The case study considered in this research is the use of a group support system (GSS) to support employee discussions about gender equity in a university. Transcripts of the four discussions were analyzed 1 Allen Lee was the accepting senior editor for this paper.

Cooperation among humans is highly dependent on social and institutional conditions, with individual incentives playing a key role in determining the level of cooperation achieved. Understanding the conditions under which cooperation can emerge has important implications for the design of resource management and wildlife conservation interventions. Incentive-based conservation approaches are being widely implemented, yet very few studies test the role of incentives in promoting cooperation in relevant developing country contexts. Using a common pool resource game, in four villages in Cambodia, we investigated how the level of withingroup cooperation varies under different institutional arrangements, including opportunities for social approval, external enforcement of rules and individual and collective incentive payments. Our results demonstrate the significance of self-organisation, the ability to devise, monitor and enforce a set of rules, among resource users. Treatments which promoted self-organisation had the greatest effect in reducing individual extraction, achieved the greatest efficiencies and had the strongest interaction with group decision-making in reducing extraction. The effects of these treatments carried over to reduce extraction in subsequent treatments, irrespective of their institutional arrangements. These results suggest that policies designed to incentivise certain behaviour in local stakeholder groups may be more successful if they create opportunities for local decision-making.

The paper argues that existing techniques for retail site evaluation ignore the useful 'soft' insights of retail executives. It outlines a technique for constructing a composite map of retail decision makers' insights into the location in uences affecting store performance. It has two objectives: to show how the method can be used to construct a basic knowledge base by helping to elicit decision makers' spatial knowledge; and to clarify the status of the maps in terms of the process of group decision making. Illustrations are given from current work drawn from interviews with executives of a major multiple superstore retailer in the UK. The paper shows how composite mapping provides a means to reduce the ideas of a group without any loss of detail, using key cognitive constructs as a 'glue' to provide a template against which individual maps can be compared and better understood. The interpretative method provides a exible and expedient means for constructing an organizational knowledge base for site location -the value of which can then be tested for modelling purposes -and as an effective counterweight to normative procedures.

In the excitement of the World Wide Web of hyperlinked multimedia spanning the globe, it's easy to lose sight of ordinary e-mail, which, like the Web, is built on the enabling infrastructure of the Internet. Yet the average person undoubtedly conducts more business by e-mail than by any other Internet service. Considering the importance and ubiquity of e-mail, it's surprising that it is not more widely used for group decision making-that is, structured business meetings, or more formally, deliberative assemblies. In the hope of providing basic guidelines and motivating further work, we offer some considerations regarding rules of order for conducting e-mail meetings

“As we know, well-led groups provide many member benefits: feelings of universality, a sense of hope, altruism, acquisition of knowledge and skills, and mutual support...This text is affordable, easy to use, and very suitable for providing group work material in BSW or MSW practice courses.”

— Greg Tully, West Chester University



AN EXPERIENTIAL APPROACH TO GROUP WORK
Second Edition

Rich Furman, University of Washington, Tacoma
Kimberly Bender, University of Denver
Diana Rowan, University of North Carolina, Charlotte

An Experiential Approach to Group Work is not your typical group work text! Using dozens of exercises that build practice-tested skills, the authors' approach is in perfect step with CSWE's competence-based education requirements. The book is organized into three sections—the first addresses stages of group practice, the second looks at major types of groups, and the final section looks at examples of group work practice with special populations.

Features of the Second Edition

    Expanded! Discussion of the theory of group process and dynamics
    New! Content regarding Canadian, British, and Australian group work practices
    New! Chapters on anti-oppressive practice, group work with immigrants, and macro-practice group work
    New! Content on the use and development of technology to aid group work
    Contains customized exercises for each group work topic, designed to build the student and practitioner’s skills for use in group work sessions
    Special emphasis on how to bring individual sessions or groups to closure
    Provides examples of group work in specialized settings: conflict resolution groups within elementary schools, pregnant teens, Latinos, and HIV/AIDS clients

Using the Saaty and Peniwati (2007) group decision making structured approach as the discussion framework, this study reports on a year-long ePortfolio study undertaken by an ePortfolio task force at a regional liberal arts university. Emphasis will be given to the group decision-making process that led to the development of an ePortfolio selection model and how AHP methodology and the group features of the Decision LensTM software supported the model development process. Future steps in the ePortfolio selection process and lessons learned in using the Analytic Hierarchy Process at a group level will be also discussed.

Participatory spatial planning and decision making requires a combination of software tools for group decision support, individual decision support and geographic analysis and presentation. This article presents a respective approach that integrates two software tools which were originally developed independently. One tool, Dito, is a Java application for the World Wide Web designed to facilitate structured argumentation and discourses. The other tool, CommonGIS, provides Java-based web-enabled services for the interactive, explorative generation and analysis of thematic maps, and it also supports multi-criteria decision making. The evolution of the integrated system is reviewed from first experiments in 2001, the resulting requirements and a succession of prototypes up to the latest solution. The focus of the article lies in the design of this solution.

This article provides a summary of empirical research on groupthink theory. Groupthink research, including analyses of historical cases of poor group decision making and laboratory tests of groupthink, is reviewed. Results from these two research areas are briefly compared. Theoretical and methodological issues for future groupthink research are identified and discussed. I conclude that groupthink research has had and continues to have considerable heuristic value. A small, but growing, body of empirical literature has been generated. In addition, groupthink research has stimulated a number of theoretical ideas, most of which have yet to be tested. ᭧

Two quantitative meta-analyses examined how the presence of visual channels, vocal channels, and synchronicity influences the quality of outcomes in negotiations and group decision making. A qualitative review of the literature found that the effects of communication channels vary widely and that existing theories do not sufficiently account for these contradictory findings. To parsimoniously encompass the full range of existing data, the authors created the communication orientation model, which proposes that the impact of communication channels is shaped by communicators’ orientations to cooperate or not. Two meta-analyses—conducted separately for negotiations and decision making—provide strong support for this model. Overall, the presence of communication channels (a) increased the achievement of high-quality outcomes for communicators with a neutral orientation, (b) did not affect the outcomes for communicators with a cooperative orientation, but (c) hurt communicators’ outcomes with a noncooperative orientation.Tests of cross-cultural differences in each meta-analysis further supported the model: for those with a neutral orientation, the beneficial effects of communication channels were weaker within East Asian cultures (i.e., Interdependent and therefore more predisposed towards cooperation) than within Western cultures (i.e., Independent).

The use of family group decision-making (FGDM) in child protection is rapidly increasing throughout the world. This paper provides a brief overview of the research evidence from 1996 to 2005 and proposes future directions for both practice and research. The purpose of the review is to help move the discussion of FGDM from a promising practice to an evidence-based practice. The research review considers what is known about the child welfare outcomes of FGDM. The paper then turns to research concerning which families are offered FGDM and which FGDM processes appear to be important. The paper concludes with specific suggestions for developing FGDM programmes that can improve child protection practice and then testing these specific programmes in rigorous trials.

The purpose of this paper is to illustrate how the analytic hierarchy process (AHP) can be applied to those situations in higher education where a group must evaluate a large number of alternatives. The suggested approach is illustrated using a case study that considers the evaluation of academic research papers at Villanova University. Following the discussion of this successful case study, a second example indicates how the AHP can be applied to the more complex problem of institution-wide strategic planning. These examples clearly demonstrate that the AHP approach is a versatile tool that can be applied to a wide range of important academic evaluation problems.

Intelligence analysis is a decision-making process rife with ambiguous, conflicting, irrelevant, important, and excessive information. The U.S. Intelligence Community is primed for psychology to lend its voice to the "analytic transformation" movement aimed at improving the quality of intelligence analysis. Traditional judgment and decision making research serves as a starting point, though recent developments in decision science advance additional relevant perspectives that are critical to improving intelligence analysis. Naturalistic decision making offers insights into the challenging information world of intelligence analysis and expert judgment. Research on group decision making shows that group processes are often dependent on the distribution of information within the group, while information foraging theory suggests that intelligence analysts may be viewed as "informavores" who use adaptive strategies to form key judgments efficiently. Psychologists should capitalize on these advances in research and theory to engage the intelligence community on its own grounds and take the lead on intelligence analytic reform. A potential research agenda and recommendations to optimize intelligence community effectiveness are offered.

Research has shown that people prefer supporting to conflicting information when making decisions. Whether this biased information search also occurs in group decision making was examined in three experiments. Experiment 1 indicated that groups as well as individuals prefer supporting information and that the strength of this bias depends on die distribution of the group members' initial decision preferences. The more group members had chosen the same alternative prior to the group discussion (group homogeneity), the more strongly the group preferred information supporting that alternative. Experiment 2 replicated these results with managers. Experiment 3 showed that the differences between homogeneous and heterogeneous groups reflect group-level processes. Higher commitment and confidence in homogeneous groups mediated this effect. Functional and dysfunctional aspects of biased information seeking in group decision making are discussed.

Hesitancy is the most common problem in decision making, for which hesitant fuzzy set can be considered as a suitable means allowing several possible degrees for an element to a set. In this paper, we study the aggregation of the hesitancy fuzzy information. Several series of aggregation operators are proposed and the connections of them are discussed. To reflect the correlation of the aggregation arguments, two methods are proposed to determine the aggregation weight vectors. Based on the support degrees among aggregation arguments, the weight vector of decision makers are obtained more objectively. To deal with the correlation of criteria, we apply the Choquet integral to get the weights of criteria. A method is also proposed for group decision making under hesitant fuzzy environment.

Different from most other group decision‐making contexts, courtroom jurors face two distinct layers of argument— arguments made during the trial and arguments made during deliberation. The juror often makes an individual decision prior to deliberation based on arguments heard in court and then, using that decision, creates arguments with the other jurors about “what really happened.” The researchers used Canary, Tanita‐Ratledge and Seibold's (1982) coding scheme to analyze arguments in 80 mock juries. The results revealed that jurors’ arguments were not complex; they used assertions and acknowledgments most frequently, followed by propositions, elaborations, and non‐related arguments. The conclusions suggest practical applications for attorneys as well as a model of argument in jury decision‐making.

This paper presents the cognizant enterprise maturity model (CEMM). The model provides tripartite usage of calibration, capability assessment, and maturity advancement. The entry point is an organizational and departmental profiler that provides relevance measures based on fuzzy multicriteria group decision-making (FMCGDM) capabilities to key maturity areas (KMAs) identified for the five-level MM. These relevance measures allow organizations to weigh and score the KMAs and nurture the model based on their experience and industry experience. Each KMA comes with a set of goals and abilities. CEMM relies on four criteria: 1) cognizant environments; 2) knowledge utilization and leverage; 3) SEI SW-CMM and people-CMM; and 4) adaptive enterprise and distinguishes between information and knowledge management (KM). Index Terms-Cognizant enterprise (CE), key maturity areas (KMAs), knowledge management (KM), maturity model (MM).

We adopt the role of devil's advocate, arguing that the quartercentury experience with groupthink represents an unfortunate episode in the history of group problem solving research. In view of the facts that there has been remarkably little empirical support for the groupthink phenomenon, that the phenomenon rests on arguable assumptions, that published critiques of groupthink have generally been ignored by groupthink researchers, and that groupthink is presented as fact in journal articles and textbooks, we see continued advocacy of groupthink as a form of organizational Tonypandy, in which knowledgeable individuals fail to speak out against widely accepted but erroneous beliefs. We explore the nature

Efficient logistics and supply chain management are enabled through the use of efficient information technologies (IT). The mobile logistics tools represent the IT interface in the supply chain. This paper aims to aid decision makers to identify the most appropriate mobile logistics tools and to achieve this aim, several evaluation criteria are identified to evaluate logistics tools, and a fuzzy axiomatic design (FAD) based group decision-making method is adopted to perform the evaluation in two phases. In the first phase of pre-assessment, alternatives that cannot meet basic requirements and the defined threshold are eliminated. In the second phase of selection, the remaining alternatives are more meticulously evaluated. Criteria weights are determined using fuzzy analytic hierarchy process (AHP) and another fuzzy multicriteria decision-making (MCDM) technique, namely fuzzy technique for order preference by similarity to ideal solution (TOPSIS), is applied in the second phase to compare the outcome of FAD. A case study is provided in order to demonstrate the potential of the proposed methodology. Personal digital assistants (PDAs) with integrated barcode scanner that are available in the Turkish market are evaluated.

This course is structured to introduce the fundamental techniques of using data to make informed management decisions. In particular, there is focus on various ways of modeling, or thinking structurally about, decision problems in order to enhance decision-making skills. Rather than survey all of the techniques of management science, only fundamental concepts that are most important for the practical analysis of management decisions will be tackled.

The scope of this assignment will tackle two types of decision making methods: [1] Heuristic method – defined as proceeding to a solution by trial and error or by rules that are only loosely defined; [2] Quantitative method – a systematic and computational analysis of data and statistics.  The Quantitative and Analytics methods (collectively called Management Science) are used interchangeably to mean models, structures,
and techniques to enhance the management skill of making informed decisions.  A brief exploration of the basic techniques in using data to make decisions will also be done; and focus will be on the most important and practical only.  It is not the intent of this assignment to delve into algorithms and computational techniques which is reserved
to a dedicated research on decision support systems (DSS).  An introduction to DSS though will suffice in highlighting the Quantitative method.

The Heuristic method will likewise be discussed.  After all, quantitative methods are only as good as the readiness and maturity of organizations, driven largely by the analytical decision-making culture (Popovič, et al., 2011).  The Heuristics method may seem rather crude, but sound judgment and effective decisions are resultant factors of a painful and difficult discovery, exploration, and self-learning process (Popovič, ibid.). 

In Description: From Data to Actionable Insight, there is a further look at how data is transformed and translated to information, to insight, then to actionable intelligence; as well as the part that technology plays in the enablement of each stage.  This will serve as an introduction to the basic techniques in using data: the tools, structures, and models that leaders use to support them in making decisions. 

The section on Discussions present a comparison of two decision making methods within a defined and set criteria.

A case study done on participatory and group decision making (Lunenberg, 2011) for a global shared services organization will be presented in the section on Actualization.  In a facilitated exercise, the objective of the Country Head is to formulate a medium term business strategy within a neutral and balanced framework, increase legitimacy and buy-in from the leadership team, while breaking dominant organizational patterns.  Elements of individual and group decision making methods  using the business model approach are demonstrated as the leaders went through the strategic planning exercise (Hacklin and Wallnöfer, 2015).

This assignment concludes with a conceptual model – a proposal on the collective interplay of leadership skills, organizational maturity, and technology tools along the decision making process. With this model, the underlying objective is to equip individuals aspiring to lead and drive analytics efforts on critical business, people, and operations metrics – with management tools to analyze, interpret trends, and act within an environment of voluminous structured and unstructured data.  It goes without saying that the overarching goal is all towards the purpose of them becoming effective leaders and decision makers.

StrikeCOM is a multi-player online strategy game designed to create discourse to aid in the examination of the development of group processes, shared awareness, and communication in distributed and face-to-face groups. The game mimics C3ISR (Command, Control, Communication, Intelligence, Surveillance, Reconnaissance) scenarios and information gathering in group activities. The game is most commonly used to create group communication and interaction in multiple communication modes. Built using a Javabased collaborative server platform the game is available for use in almost any computing environment. StrikeCOM has been used as a research tool to study leadership and deception in group decision making. The U.S. Department of Defense is using the tool to teach Network Centric Warfare to battle commanders. Use of StrikeCOM over the last two years has resulted in a number of lessons-learned, including using simple, familiar game interfaces, utilizing full and immediate feedback, and creating a flexible technical design to meet shifting research and teaching needs. 0-7695-2268

The main purpose of this study was to investigate judgments made by employees from the pharmaceutical industry and allied health-care sectors in a set of four different drug discovery and development cases derived from real scenarios. Each case study related to go/no-go decisions taken from various steps in drug discovery through preclinical and clinical development (investigational new drug) on to market introduction (new drug application) and treatment of the target population. Using a web-based questionnaire, 52 respondents made five sets of judgment within each drug case whether to continue or halt further project development. For each case, additional details of the developmental scenario were disclosed to the respondent after completion of each judgment response. We also assessed to what extent the individual judgments given by the respondents were influenced by work experience and functional role, education, or their perceived entrepreneurial character. Our study demonstrates that health-care employees differ substantially in their individual intuitive judgments of benefit and risk in go/no-go decisions during the drug discovery and development process. This lack of coherence and wide variability with respect to the drug development cases selected may reflect judgment in the real world. Such judgments are usually taken from incomplete information, and individual decision-making rules vary substantially between experts in the field. Further knowledge about this inherent human functional judgment variability may be helpful to form a better understanding of individual decisionmaking in relation to inherent uncertainties. Additional research may also clarify how personal experience within drug discovery and development influences judgment and help to optimize decision outcomes in the drug development sector. Importantly, a deeper insight of R&D Management 41, 4, 2011.

The decoy eVect occurs when preferences between two alternatives reverse as a result of the manipulation of a third alternative (i.e., a decoy) such that it is dominated by only one of the two original alternatives. Previous research has demonstrated this eVect in employee selection decisions, but only when decisions were made by individuals. The present investigation was designed to test the generalizability of the phenomenon to decisions made by groups, and to determine the inXuence of process and outcome accountability on the decoy eVect. Results showed that the overall decoy eVect held for both individual and group decisions. However, for both individuals and groups, the decoy eVect held only when decision makers knew they would have to justify their decision processes.

Drawing on current research in anthropology, cognitive psychology, neuro-science, and the humanities, Understanding the Human Mind explores how and why we, as humans, find it so easy to believe we are right-even when we are outright wrong. Humans live out their own lives effectively trapped in their own mind and, despite being exceptional survivors and a highly social species, our inner mental world is often misaligned with reality. In order to understand why, John Ed-ward Terrell and Gabriel Stowe Terrell suggest current dual-process models of the mind overlook our mind's most decisive and unpredictable mode: creativity. Using a three-dimensional model of the mind, the authors examine the human struggle to stay in touch with reality-how we succeed, how we fail, and how winning this struggle is key to our survival in an age of mounting social problems of our own making. Using news stories of logic-defying behavior, analogies to famous fictitious characters, and analysis of evolutionary and cognitive psychology theory, this fascinating account of how the mind works is a must-read for all interested in anthropology and cognitive psychology. John Edward Terrell is internationally known for his pioneering research and publications on human biological and cultural diversity, social network analysis , human biogeography, and the peopling and prehistory of the Pacific Islands. Gabriel Stowe Terrell is studying industrial relations with an emphasis on conflict resolution techniques, organizational behavior, and labor history.

University of Luxembourg
Faculté de Lettres, des Sciences Humaines, des Arts, et des Sciences de l’Éducation

EXPLORING LEARNING PROCESSES WITHIN A COLLABORATIVE STUDY CIRCLE
Cultural-historical activity theory perspective on individual and social transformation

A Thesis Submitted in Partial Fulfilment of the Requirements for the Award of Master in Learning and Development in Multilingual and Multicultural Contexts

Master académique - Master of Arts

1. Supervisor: Prof. Dr. Charles MAX
2. Supervisor: Study director Dr. Gudrun ZIEGLER
Presented by Jean-Marie NAU
February 2012
Members of the Jury: Professors Charles Max, Georges Steffgen, Thierry Dubreuilh (external expert), Anola Bracaj (student expert)
 
Abstract (721 words)
The purpose of this study is to explore learning processes within a collaborative study group, engaged on a path of individual and social transformation, with the perspective of cultural-historical activity theory. The topic opens up a window on processes in learning communities beyond school-related education. The objective is to gain insights how learning takes place in the activity, what the tools are that the participants use in the activity, how these tools guide their learning, and how the participants’ multivoicedness influences the learning process,.
Research as a process
Scientific method as a truth seeking endeavour is interpretive, and demands clarity about the basic set of beliefs that guides action, and the interpretive framework that contains the ontological, epistemological, and methodological premises.
The two-fold moral purpose of any human being - to develop their latent potentialities through efforts to contribute to the advancement of civilization, - constitutes the core element of a conceptual framework that governs Bahá’í educational activity.
This research presents a modest contribution to explore a tiny facet and fragment of social reality, and is not a description of the world as it is. The study represents one perspective on social reality, a reality that is whole.
History is not just a series of events, but develops. Humanity as an organic entity evolves, in its collective life, towards maturity, and the distinguishing attribute of this maturity is the unification of the human race.
Participants and research instruments
The unit of analysis consists of a group of five participants who start a course on how to provide children, aged five to eight, moral, spiritual, and values-based training. The data collected includes five video-recorded group sessions and interviews, written questionnaires, notes, and a number of documents, which include primary texts, written by the central authors and institutions of the Bahá’í community, by individuals or Bahá’í inspired organisations.
The concept of learning is applied to the individual and social plane. The analysis at the micro-level is referring to individual utterances and joint conversations. References are made to acquisition and participation approaches and their interconnectedness.
I use activity theory to frame the analysis and discourse analysis to analyze the data. Activity theory states, that a collective activity, with the basic purpose shared by others, is undertaken by people who are motivated by a purpose or towards the solution of a problem, which is mediated by tools, used in order to achieve an outcome.
When we communicate, we may strive for clarity, but we are always situated in an historical context and what we say is influenced by our multivoicedness. Reflecting on what people have said and written, and thereby discovering meaning and interpretation is the basis of discourse analysis.
Findings & Implications
The study shows how learning takes place through a complex interaction between all of the elements in the activity system. Nine distinct instances offer insights that this particular type of collaborative activity encourages and promotes the exchange of questions, ideas, experiences, thoughts and knowledge among participants.
The study shows that participants negotiate tools given by the content-based curriculum and suggests that participants in a collaborative learning activity focus on their objectives and outcome, and thus choose, define and appropriate themselves suitable tools. Several mediating artefacts, tools and signs were used by the participants and shaped their learning.
The study circle observed is at the beginning of its historicity. Study circles are developing with their own historicity in different contexts and cultures, and influence the way participants learn. As participants bring in their historicity and multivoicedness, they influence the learning activity. There is interconnectedness and mutual influence between participants and the learning activity.
The study shows how participants bring into the activity their multivoicedness and historicity. Most of these voices help the participants towards reaching their objective and outcome.
In the analysis of the 21 excerpts, I identified 32 voices that participants bring into the activity, collected into seven interacting and overlapping categories.
I suggest that participants, engaged in collaborative learning activities, raise their awareness that their multivoicedness influences their learning.
The study suggests that the existence and deliberate creation of certain conditions among participants in a learning activity influence the learning process. They include mutual trust, honesty, unity, a welcoming and encouraging attitude, a respect for the opinion of others, adopting a humble learning attitude, humour, and taking ownership of one’s learning.
Keywords: cultural-historical activity theory, mediating artefacts, learning, development, historicity, multivoicedness.
DOI: 10.13140/2.1.4135.4244

The paper describes a method for design of marine structures with increased safety for environment, considering also the required investment costs as well as the aspects of risk distribution onto the maritime stakeholders. Practically, the paper seeks to answer what is the optimal amount that should be invested into certain safety measure for any given vessel. Due to the uneven distribution of risk, as well as the differing impact of costs emerging from safety improvements, stakeholders experience conflicting ranking of alternatives. To solve this multi-stakeholder decision-making problem, in which each stakeholder is a decision-maker, the method applies concepts of group decision-making theory, namely the Game Theory. The method fosters axiomatic definition of the optimum solution, arguing that the solution, or the final selected design, should satisfy the non-dominance, efficiency, and fairness. These three are thoroughly discussed in terms of structural design, especially the latter. Considering the coupling of environmental risk and structural design, the method also builds on the preference structure of four maritime stakeholders: yards, owners, oil receivers and the public, who either share the risks or directly influence structural design. Method is presented on a practical study of structural design of a tanker with a crashworthy side structure that is capable of reducing the risk of collision. The outcome of this study outlines a number of possibilities for successful improvement of tanker safety that can benefit, concurrently, all maritime stakeholders.

This paper presents the Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP) as a potential decision making method for use in project management. The contractor prequali®cation problem is used as an example. A hierarchical structure is constructed for the prequali®cation criteria and the contractors wishing to prequalify for a project. By applying the AHP, the prequali®cation criteria can be prioritized and a descending-order list of contractors can be made in order to select the best contractors to perform the project. A sensitivity analysis can be performed to check the sensitivity of the ®nal decisions to minor changes in judgements. The paper presents group decision-making using the AHP. The AHP implementation steps will be simpli®ed by using the`Expert Choice' professional software that is available commercially and designed for implementing AHP. It is hoped that this will encourage the application of the AHP by project management professionals. #

Escalation of commitment refers to the tendency to persist with or even intensify losing courses of action. In this study, we examined whether authentic and contrived dissent reduces escalation in group decision making. Participants first individually indicated their preference on how to allocate money between two alternatives. Based on these individual preferences, homogeneous and heterogeneous three-person groups were formed. In addition, group discussion was either structured by assigning one group member to play the role of a devil's advocate or was not structured. Results revealed that escalation tendencies over multiple decisions were reduced in heterogeneous groups that used the devil's advocacy procedure. The rationality of this behavior is discussed.

This paper presents the Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP) as a potential decision making method for use in project management. The contractor prequali®cation problem is used as an example. A hierarchical structure is constructed for the prequali®cation criteria and the contractors wishing to prequalify for a project. By applying the AHP, the prequali®cation criteria can be prioritized and a descending-order list of contractors can be made in order to select the best contractors to perform the project. A sensitivity analysis can be performed to check the sensitivity of the ®nal decisions to minor changes in judgements. The paper presents group decision-making using the AHP. The AHP implementation steps will be simpli®ed by using the`Expert Choice' professional software that is available commercially and designed for implementing AHP. It is hoped that this will encourage the application of the AHP by project management professionals.

Our purpose in this draft is to combine three previously published papers in order to apply a general solution frame to a specific problem. Because system design is a special case of problem solving, we will try to apply A Generalized Group Decision Support System (GDSS) for Group Problem Solving: (Callaos, et.al. 1999; Callaos and Lesso, 1999) to the specific area of System Design. This will be done by means of: 1) describing a GDSS for Group Problem solving, based on the Mathematical Solution to the Voter Paradox, 2) analyzing the concept of design, and making explicit its relations to: 2.1) intention, action, decision (Callaos and Callaos, 1995), and 2.2) to discovery (Evans, 2000), and group creativity (synectics). The GDSS for Group Problem Solving proposed here has two basic sub-systems: one would support the group creativity process, required for the generation of alternative designs, and the other would support: a) the group reasoning process, required to establish the pros and cons of each design alternative and b) the group decision process, based on the Ordinal Scales Delphi Method made possible by the Generalized Absolute Majority Rule, and/or the optimal hamiltonian path, both included in the Solution of the Voter Paradox. The ideas presented in the third part of this paper emerged while Richard Evans, one of the co-authors of this paper, worked with IBM and NASA over the past four years. The other two parts are suggested as complement to the third part, and as a way to make operative the basic ideas through the software developed according the first part of this paper.

Important decisions are often taken by groups of decision makers who need to make choices among several alternatives, based on an appraisal of how the alternatives are likely to perform with regard to multiple objectives. Such decision processes can be supported by the methods of multi-criteria decision analysis (MCDA) which help generate decision recommendations and offer process benefits in terms of enhanced decision quality, improved communication, and enhanced commitment to decision implementation. In this Chapter, we outline widely used MCDA methods and consider their uses in group decision making. We also review selected case studies and offer guidelines for the design of MCDA-assisted group decision processes. We conclude with thoughts on promising application domains and future research topics.

Selection of appropriate subcontractors for outsourcing is very important for the success of construction projects. This can improve the overall quality of projects and promote the qualification and reputation of the main contractors. The evaluation of subcontractors can be made by some experts or decision-makers with respect to some criteria. If this process is done in different time periods, it can be defined as a dynamic multi-criteria group decision-making (MCGDM) problem. In this study, we propose a new fuzzy dynamic MCGDM approach based on the EDAS (Evaluation based on Distance from Average Solution) method for subcontractor evaluation. In the procedure of the proposed approach, the sets of alternatives, criteria and decision-makers can be changed at different time periods. Also, the proposed approach gives more weight to newer decision information for aggregating the overall performance of alternatives. A numerical example is used to illustrate the proposed approach and show the application of it in subcontractor evaluation. The results demonstrate that the proposed approach is efficient and useful in real-world decision-making problems.

The Delphi method has proven a popular tool in information systems research for identifying and prioritizing issues for managerial decision-making. However, many past studies have not adopted a systematic approach to conduct a Delphi study. This article provides rigorous guidelines for the process of selecting appropriate experts for the study and gives detailed principles for making design choices during the process that ensure a valid study. A detailed example of a study to identify key factors affecting the diffusion of e-commerce in Sub-Saharan Africa illustrates the design choices that may be involved. We conclude with suggestions for theoretical applications. #

This research review examines recent developments in computer-mediated communication (CMC) research for educational applications. The review draws on 170 recent research articles selected from 78 journals representing a wide range of disciplines. The review focuses on peer-reviewed empirical studies, but is open to a variety of methodologies. The review is divided into two sections addressing major areas of current research: (a) general CMC research in education, and (b) factors affecting computer-mediated learning. The review covers a variety of key research areas revolving around CMC in education, including, media effect and comparison, on-line courses and networks, course and program evaluations, learning and learning processes, problem solving, writing, decision-making, argumentation, group decision-making, group dynamics, peer evaluations, gender differences, anonymity, teaching practice effects, technology integration, teacher styles and characteristics, socio-cultural factors, and professional development effects. Findings suggest partial advantages of CMC in writing, task focused discussion, collaborative decision-making, group work, and active involvement in knowledge construction during group interactions. Other research findings revealed influences of peer interaction, group composition, group cohesion, goal commitment, group norm development, and process training, mixed-sex groups, and virtual cross-functional teams. Mixed-findings are revealed for performance advantages of computer-mediated versus face-to-face learning environments on various tasks and for the presence of gender differences in computer-mediated environments.