Advantages of Consensus Decision-Making
Team agreement on supporting the decision
Seeing the benefits for participating employees
Providing a unified perspective
Team collaboration spirit
Note: Consensus decision-making may be suitable for your team if the problem is complex, there are enough people to provide good perspectives, creative solutions are required, and employees are willing to participate.
Disadvantages of Consensus Decision-Making
Agreement on poor decisions
Groupthink
Compromise solutions
Business is hierarchical
Note: Consensus decision-making may lead to the acceptance of the lowest common denominator – a solution or decision that meets the needs of team members to agree – but may not be optimal for the business. Additionally, in business, not every worker, department, person, or decision in the organization is equally important. The HR department may push back against layoffs. This sounds great, and it is what you would expect from your HR team. However, by not reducing labor costs, you have to cut costs elsewhere. The agreed-upon decision may be to reduce manufacturing costs and not conduct layoffs, but the result is a poor product that causes the company to lose market share. In the end, all employees are worse off. Perhaps the disaster could be avoided by not treating every department or concern as equally valuable.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is consensus-based decision-making?
Why is consensus decision-making considered bad?
Sources:
University of Florida Training and Organizational Development. “Facilitative Decision-Making,” Page 1.
University of Minnesota Extension. “Benefits to Consensus Decision-Making.”
USA Today. “‘We are better than this:’ Idaho Teachers Get Paid Leave After Dressing as Border Wall, Latinos for Halloween.”
Idaho Ed News. “Middleton Employees Place on Leave Over ‘Inappropriate’ Halloween Costumes.”
Northwestern School of Education and Social Policy. “Groupthink: The Role of Leadership in Enhancing and Mitigating the Pitfall in Team Decision-Making.”
Digital.gov. “Design and Conflict: Do You Know Your Conflict Style?”
Source: https://www.thebalancemoney.com/consensus-decision-making-pros-and-cons-4178335
Leave a Reply