Functional Perspective on Group Decision Making

The Functional Perspective on Group Decision Making Theory deals with how groups make good decisions. The theory holds that there are four funtions a group must achieve: analyzing a problem, setting goals, identifying alternatives, and evaluating positive and negative characteristics. These do not necessarily have to occur in order, but they all need to occur. A great example of this is when I was a music buyer for a small retail store. My associates and I were getting ready to release the new Switchfoot cd, and we needed a creative way to promote the album in the community as well as physically in the store. Our group sat down and I presented the problem, we set our goals (specifically that we wanted a concrete design plan as well as advertising plan), brainstormed (some crazy ideas :) ), and decided what would be good and bad about our ideas. Looking back on it, I don't think any of us knew there was an actual communication theory about what our group needed to do in order to make a good decision, however all four of these processes occurred, and in the end our store did really well with sales for that album!