Group Composition and Decision Making

Abstract

Abstract How might the composition of a group affect its decision-making processes? The objective of this article is to examine the role of diversity in three key aspects of decision making in groups: access to information; information processing; and building commitment to group decisions. It begins by briefly reviewing the diversity literature. The review does not attempt to be comprehensive (several such reviews have already been published), but rather, it attempts to highlight how diversity can influence group decision making. It then discusses how diversity might shape the group's access to information held by its members, the cognitive biases that come in the way of information processing, and finally commitment to the group's decision.