Patrick R. Laughlin - Group Problem Solving

IN THE MOST GENERAL SENSE, a problem is a discrepancy between a current less desirable state and a future more desirable state. The current state may be a simple question such as Who was the first President of the United States and the desired state the answer George Washington. The current state may be the diameter of a circle and the desired state the circumference of the circle. The current state may be a set of clues in a crossword puzzle and the desired state the correct answers. The current state may be a new deadly contagious disease and the desired state an understanding of the etiology, vectors, treatment, and prevention of the disease.

Although problems vary widely in domain (scientific, engineering, business and financial, artistic and literary, etc.), complexity (simple or complicated), specification (well defined or poorly defined), and relationship to other problems in a larger system, all problems involve proceeding by a series of permissible logical, mathematical, scientific, physical, or linguistic operations from the current less desirable state to the future more desirable state. Scientific research teams, auditing teams, grand juries, criminal and civil juries, university hiring committees, school boards, weather forecasters, the Council of Economic Advisors, and forensic art experts are some of the many groups who attempt to solve problems in our increasingly complex and interdependent world.

GROUP TASK, STRUCTURE, PROCESS, AND PRODUCT

Group problem solving may be analyzed in terms of four basic constructs: (a) group task, (b) group structure, (c) group process, and (d) group product. The group task is what the group is attempting to do. Group structure is the organization of the group, including (a) roles, the different positions within the group, (b) norms, the expected beliefs and behaviors for the group members, and (c) member characteristics, the demographic, physical, and psychological attributes of each group member. Group process is how the group members interact with and influence one another. Group product is the collective group response or output. The correspondence of the product to the objective of the group defines success or failure and determines the rewards or punishments for the group members. In cooperative interaction such as group problem solving all group members have the same goal or objective and share equally in the rewards and punishments. In mixed-motive interaction such as social dilemmas the group members have different objectives, and the rewards and punishments vary for the different group members.

To illustrate these four constructs consider the Supreme Court of the United States. After accepting a case in the certiorari process the group task is to issue a decision with an accompanying explanation. The structure of the Court consists of the roles of Chief Justice and eight Associate Justices, all of whom serve for life unless impeached and convicted by Congress. Member characteristics are the demographic attributes and experience of each Justice such as age and gender, college and law school, and Appellate Court positions, and their knowledge, beliefs, attitudes, and values. The Court follows norms such as sitting in seniority order when the Court is hearing a case. The Chief Justice may assign other norms such as speaking in turn in seniority order without interruption during conference meetings.

After a decision to accept a case the first part of the group process involves hearing the case in open session in the Supreme Court Building, when advocates of the two parties in the case present their oral arguments and answer questions from the Justices. The Justices subsequently discuss the case in private and make a preliminary group decision by a formal vote with a simple 5/9 majority rule. If the Chief Justice is in the majority faction, he or she writes the opinion or assigns it to one of the other Associate Justices in the majority faction to write the opinion of the Court. If the Chief Justice is in the minority faction, the most senior Associate Justice in the majority faction assigns the case to one of the Associate Justices in the majority faction to write the opinion of the Court. The written opinion is then circulated among the Justices, who may respond in written agreements or dissents and suggested changes. They may discuss them with one or more other Justices. Each Justice has three or four Clerks who are also involved in writing and vetting the opinions. Subsequently the Justices meet in private for a final decision by a formal vote with a 5/9 simple majority rule.

The final group product is a Supreme Court Decision with the accompanying written majority opinion, perhaps with further statements by both the concurring Justices and the dissenting Justices explaining their individual reasoning. Greenburg (2007) and Toobin (2007) present informative and interesting accounts of the individual Justices, procedures, policies, decisions, and controversies of competing interest groups and congressional parties in the Supreme Court under Chief Justices Rehnquist and Roberts. Amar (2005) presents a comprehensive history of the U.S. Constitution and the steadily increasing importance of the Supreme Court in interpreting the Constitution and the constitutionality of federal and state laws.

In a classic chapter French and Raven (1969) distinguished five types of interpersonal influence processes, or power. Reward power is the capacity of the group members to provide desirable experiences and outcomes for one another, whereas coercive power is the capacity of the group members to provide undesirable experiences and outcomes for one another. In the Supreme Court the Chief Justice assigns opinions to the other Justices, and thus is able to reward or punish them by the number and desirability of assignments.