On the effects of structuring idea generation tasks and supporting consensus building in a Multi-Criteria Group Decision Making Environment.

Abstract

Decision making is a process that is characterized by several activities. For a typical semi-structured to unstructured multi-criteria task, decision-makers must go through problem exploration, the so-called intelligence phase, to understand what the task is about. Subsequent, critical activities are design of alternatives, choice generation and building consensus around the generated choices. The best idea will be implemented usually by a group of several stakeholders. Unless care has been taken to build consensus during the decision process, the implementation is unlikely to succeed. That is, the decision is unlikely to become a purposeful action. At the same time, the multiple objective nature of the considered tasks also adds to the group decision-making process. This research explores both creativity or idea generation and supporting consensus building on the basis of the above justification. An investigation or the current status or multi-criteria group decision making is done through literature surveys of the fields of Multi-criteria Decision Making and Group Decision Support Systems. Particular emphasis or the theoretical and practical sides of this research is placed on supporting creativity and supporting consensus building. In the former. the issue or task structuring is considered as a way to better enhance the creativity process, within a laboratory experiment on a problem related to information systems and systems analysis and design. In the support of consensus building, a theoretical framework is examined within a real life study using the multiple criteria group decision-making environment, Team Expert Choice.