The stepladder technique: An alternative group structure facilitating effective group decision making.

A new group problem-solving structure entitled the Stepladder technique is introduced. The stepladder technique is intended to allay the problems associated with group decision making by structuring the entry of group members into a core group and by ensuring that each member contributes to the decision-making process. Four-person groups, randomly assigned to either the Stepladder group condition (15 groups) or the conventional group condition (15 groups), performed Johnson and Johnson's (1987) winter survival exercise. Stepladder groups produced significantly (p < .05) higher quality decisions than did conventional groups (in which all members entered and worked on the problem at the same time). Furthermore, Stepladder groups' decisions surpassed the quality of their best individual members' decisions 56% of the time. In contrast, conventional groups' decisions surpassed the quality of their best members' decisions only 13% of the time. Organizational problems and issues are frequently addressed by small groups of executives, managers, or workers who constitute temporary formal groups. Schein (1965) denned temporary formal groups as committees or task forces that may be created to carry out a particular job but which, once the job is carried out, cease to exist unless some other task is found for them (Schein, 1965, p. 68). Twenty-five years later, Sundstrom, De Meuse, and Futrell (1990) re-emphasized the importance of the temporary formal group, which they renamed projects and development. Sundstrom et al. described this work-type application as groups (task forces, research groups, planning teams, development teams, etc.) requiring high differentiation of members' skills, little synchronization within the organization, and life spans that typically differ for each new project. Creating new products, rewriting organizational policies, solving organizational problems, and developing marketing proposals are examples of tasks that may be addressed by temporary formal groups. The decision to employ a temporary formal group instead of an individual for a particular problem typically stems from the belief that a solution produced by a group of individuals working together will be superior to the solution produced by an average individual. Assessing the Performance of Decision-Making Groups