When analyzing different methods of group decision making, three types of decision making techniques stand out as necessitating discussion. These are the Delphi method, nominal group method, and the Wisdom of Crowds method. These three methods have similarities, but have nuances that separate them into different classifications.
The Delphi method is a graduated approach to reaching consensus which involves establishing a group of specialists that are knowledgeable about the given topic (Goodman, 2016). When the technique was first developed by the RAND corporation, the aim was to enable specialists to pool their knowledge and use each other's views to predict future events (Goodman, 2016). The method attempts to establish a number of rounds through which the panel of experts will be asked questions and after being given the chance to review the answers, iterate to a mean or median answer that is likely the closest to the potential future outcome (Goodman, 2016). As the method is meant to establish a common answer, the need for nuance has ultimately resulted in multiple variations on the Delphi method to get more accurate results for specific use cases (Goodman, 2016).
Another technique that is utilized is the Wisdom of Crowds approach. The Wisdom of Crowds approach takes data from across a group and aggregates it based on different variables before averaging it (Da et al., 2019). These averages are then used for forecasts which are meant to make use of the crowd data (Da et al., 2019). One difference between the Wisdom of Crowds and the Delphi methods are that the Wisdom of Crowds does not necessarily give preference to specialists and the crowd is based on the given population and not a constructed crowd. One of the issues with the Wisdom of Crowds approach is that the more the individuals are aware of the crowd's decision, the more the crowd influences the individual creating a group-think scenario (Da et al., 2019). Studies have shown that this potential obstacle can be overcome by encouraging independent voices to vote based on their own preference and not to look at the crowd preference before making a decision (Da et al., 2019).
Another method of group decision making is the Nominal Group Technique. This method is unique in that it intends to have every opinion in the group taken into account rather than having the individuals only able to express opinions in the form of a simple vote (McMillan et al., 2016). As well, when the group comes to a decision, the results are ranked with descending preference based on the groups identifying which choices get highest to lowest priority (McMillan et al., 2016. One of the main differences between the NGT and the Delphi technique is that the NGT is done in person, where as the Delphi technique does not have to be done face to face as the questionnaires can be mailed or done electronically (McMillan et al.,2016).
References:
Da, Z., & Huang, X. (2019). Harnessing the wisdom of crowds. Management Science.
Goodman, C. (2016). Conversation or consensus: using the Delphi technique to set priorities for ageing research and practice.
McMillan, S. S., King, M., & Tully, M. P. (2016). How to use the nominal group and Delphi techniques. International journal of clinical pharmacy, 38(3), 655-662.