The Role of Need for Closure in Decision Making Performance using a Model-driven Method
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2021
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en
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Many societal challenges are messy in nature, meaning that multiple stakeholders are involved, that may each have different ideas on what is going on, do not completely agree on goals, while at the same time needing one another to improve the situation. Resolving these conflicts concerning opinions and goals is necessary to define a way forward. Need for Closure (NFC) is a cognitive, and individual factor and is characterized by “seizing” and “freezing” behaviour, that influences the amount of conflict surfaced. High NFC groups surface less conflict compared to low NFC groups.
Differences in goals and perceptions of reality are necessary conditions that lead groups to conflict. Group decision support systems (GDSS) were developed for dealing with these messy problems and they help by stimulating differentiation and integration of views. Electronic Meeting Systems (EMS) are a popular form of GDSS and are sometimes used in combination with model approaches like multi-criteria decision analysis. Current research does not fully address how NFC influences decision making performance. Because interactions that are face to face receive comparable results
as compared to interactions that are electronically mediated, the current research uses GDSS theories to understand the effects how high (vs. low) NFC groups influence group decision making performance. Data from groups using Value-Focused Thinking (VFT) were analysed for this study.VFT makes distinctions between fundamental ‘objectives’, and means ‘objectives’ and was used as the method to complete the Foundation Task (FT). The FT requires participants to divide 500.000 pounds received from a philanthropic uncle among six competing projects. A Problem and Solutions
Activity coding method was used to analyse the experiments and focused on time spent on problem,time spent on solution, depth of analysis on the problem, and depth of analysis on the solution.Problem analysis, criteria establishment, and evaluation of alternative choices are known to relate to decision making performance. The analysis showed that low NFC groups as compared to high NFC more faithfully use, and facilitate VFT structures, leading to more criteria establishment and evaluation of alternative choices (i.e. depth of analysis), and both groups spent an equal amount on
problem analysis (i.e. time spent on problem) resulting in a higher “decision making performance” for low NFC groups in their final decision.
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Faculteit der Managementwetenschappen