
Group Decisions Making (GDM): Human Inspired
By: Herdawatie Abdul Kadir (PhD Student)
The GDM problems is a generally occurred in most companies and organizations where a decision process do not guranteed the decision is agreed by all the members. There are several method of GDM which involved broad concepts of : (1) Conflict(2) Majority Rule and Competition (3) Consensus and Cooperation (4) Proposals
In order to introduce mutual agreements among group members , the consensus were introduce to the GDM problems. Here, the decision made were agreed and sat isfied all of the members[1]. The experts members were requires to modified their solution towards a satisfory options for the group benefits.
Defination of Consensus:
“Consensus process, on the other hand, creates a cooperative dynamic. Only one proposal is considered at a time. Everyone works together to make it the best possible decision for the group. Any concerns are raised and resolved, sometimes one by one, until all voices are heard. Since proposals are no longer the property of the presenter, a solution can be created more cooperatively”
(Butler and Rothstein,2006)

Fig. 1 Example of general consensus progress scheme[1]
A general scheme of the phases of the consensus progress are briefly described below.
(1) Gather preferences:
Each expert member provides facilitator a solution with their own opinion based on the alternatives.
(2) Determine degree of consensus:
The facilitator values the level of agreement
(3) Consensus control: The consensus degree were compared with a threshold level and when the degree is enough go to the next page. Otherwise more discussion is needed
(4) Generate feedback information: The facilitator identifies furthest preferences from consensus and consults the members to achived the desired output and the process keep on repeating after the best solution is satified by all members.

Fig. 2 Example of formal consensus progress scheme[2]
Reference(s):
- Palomares, I.; Martinez, L.; Herrera, F., "A Consensus Model to Detect and Manage Noncooperative Behaviors in Large-Scale Group Decision Making," Fuzzy Systems, IEEE Transactions on , vol.22, no.3, pp.516,530, June 2014.
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C. Butler and A. Rothstein, On Conflict and Consensus: A Handbook on Formal Consensus Decision Making. Takoma Park, MD, USA , 2006.