Reviews: Making Social Science Matter: Why Social Inquiry Fails and How it Can Succeed Again, Multidimensional Geographic Information Science, Digital futures: Living in a dot.com World, Event-Cities 2, Geographic Information Systems for Group Decision Making: Towards a Participatory Geographic Information Science, Atlas of Cyberspace, Utopian England: Community Experiments 1900–1945, Regeneration in the 21st Century: Policies into Practice, National-Level Planning in Democratic Countries: An International Comparison of City and Regional Policy-Making

2002 ◽  
Vol 29 (3) ◽  
pp. 461-472 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rob Imrie ◽  
David Maguire ◽  
Bronwyn Purvis ◽  
Malcolm Miles ◽  
Muki Haklay ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Social Science ◽  
Group Decision Making ◽  
Policy Making ◽  
Regional Policy ◽  
Information Science ◽  
Group Decision ◽  
National Level ◽  
Geographic Information Science ◽  
Geographic Information

IJOSpontaneous Group Decision Making in Distributed Collaborative Learning

2013 ◽  
Vol 3 (2) ◽  
pp. 40-58
Author(s):  
Geoffrey Z. Liu
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Collaborative Learning ◽  
Group Decision Making ◽  
Information Science ◽  
Group Performance ◽  
Group Decision ◽  
Decision Quality ◽  
Library And Information Science ◽  
Poor Group

The paper reports on an exploratory study of student spontaneous group decision making (GDM) in distributed collaborative learning environments. Recordings of group meetings were collected from graduate students working on a database design project (in a library and information science program in California), from which group decision instances were extracted and formally coded for quantitative analysis. A follow-up survey was conducted to gather more information. The study finds that students are generally in favor of an unfacilitated and semi-structured GDM process, with group decisions typically made by consensus. A rigidly structured GDM process tends to be associated with poor group performance. GDM efficiency is an important predictor of the quality of final group products, and too much brainstorming may lead to difficulties. Students relying exclusively on text chatting tend to be unsure if their opinion was given equal attention, and those in underperforming groups are more doubtful about decision quality.

Cartography

2004 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mark Monmonier ◽  
Robert B. McMaster
Keyword(s):  
Information Society ◽  
Information Science ◽  
Transition Period ◽  
National Level ◽  
Geographic Information Science ◽  
Geographic Information ◽  
Sixth Edition ◽  
Map Projections ◽  
Map Design ◽  
Research And Education

Summarizing a decade of cartographic research in a short chapter is difficult: bias is inevitable, randomness is indefensible, breadth is tricky, and coherence is essential. Rather than attempt a broad, shallow survey, we chose to focus on some of the period’s significant conceptual frameworks, and relate each model to one or more related research papers published since A. Jon Kimerling (1989) summarized cartographic research for the first volume of Geography in America. This has been a transition period in which the discipline has witnessed several significant changes, including: (1) the nearly complete automation of the cartographic process and a proliferation of maps produced by desktop mapping systems and GISs; (2) the inclusion of significant amounts of core cartographic research—such as terrain modeling, geographic data structures, generalization, and interpolation—within the growing discipline of GIS; and (3) the wide adoption of the term “geographic visualization” to describe the dynamic, interactive component of cartography. These developments and the migration of more and more cartographic interests into the newly created discipline of GIS have raised concern about whether our discipline would survive. These doubts are offset by growing recognition that research and education on representational issues in GIS is critical, and that research in map design, symbolization, and generalization cannot be neglected. Cartography remains an independent discipline. Our two journals, Cartography and Geographic Information Science (recently renamed with Science replacing Systems) and Cartographic Perspectives, are thriving. American cartographic researchers also publish their work in Cartographica, GeoInfo Systems, GIS World, and the International Journal of Geographic Information Science. The Mapping Science Committee of the National Academy of Sciences and the recently formed Committee on Geography represent our interests at the national level, as do the Cartography and Geographic Information Society (a member organization of the American Congress on Surveying and Mapping), the North American Cartographic Information Society, the University Consortium for Geographic Information Science, and the AAG’s Cartography Specialty Group. During the decade our educators, researchers, and essayists have published many textbooks and monographs, including the sixth edition of Elements of Cartography (Robinson et al. 1995); several new editions of Borden Dent’s Cartography: Thematic Map Design (most recently 1999); Terry Slocum’s Thematic Cartography and Visualization (1999); John Snyder’s (1993) seminal work on projections, Flattening the Earth: Two Thousand Years of Map Projections; Alan MacEachren’s How Maps Work (1995); Denis Wood’s (1992) social critique of cartography, The Power of Maps; and a series of books by Mark Monmonier, including Maps with the News: The Development of American Journalistic Cartography (1989b), How to Lie with Maps (1991, rev. 1996), Mapping it Out: Expository Cartography for the Humanities and Social Sciences (1993), Drawing the Line: Tales of Maps and Cartocontroversy (1995), Cartographies of Danger: Mapping Hazards in America (1997), and Air Apparent: How Meteorologists Learned to Map, Predict, and Dramatize the Weather (1999).

An analysis of groupthink and decision making in a collectivism culture: the case of a public organization in Tanzania

2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Crecencia Godfrey Tarmo ◽  
Faisal H. Issa
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Group Decision Making ◽  
Group Decision ◽  
National Level ◽  
Research Work ◽  
Original Research ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Decision Making Processes ◽  
Made In

PurposeGroupthink happens in-group decision-making processes whereby members of a group prematurely arrive at a decision that may indicate consensus but for the aim of protecting group harmony. This limits the contributions of the individuals' talents, ideas, competences and experiences to more effective decisions. Although there are a number of studies on predictors (forecasters) of groupthink, they do not consider the influence of the African cultural aspects of collectivism, high power distance and tolerance on groupthink that may characterise the decision-making context in African settings. It is in that context that this case study analyses groupthink in a public sector organization in Tanzania.Design/methodology/approachThis paper unveils the presence of groupthink predictors that can affect the quality of decisions made in groups within the Tanzania context. The study was conducted in one of the public institutions in Tanzania that is under the Ministry of Home affairs. The study population included Directors, Managers, Heads of units, District registration officers and other officials as shown in Table 1. These are the people who participate in decision-making processes in the organization and were drawn from different offices of the organization including the headquarter office, Kibaha Data centre, District Registration offices from different regions including Dares Salaam, Coast region, Arusha, Mtwara, Mwanza, Manyara, Mbeya, Singida, Dodoma, Geita, Lindi and Njombe – these 12 administrative regions are among the 27 regions that make up the Tanzania mainland. Through simple random and purposive sampling methods, a total of 97 participants participated effectively. The criterion for participation being participants must have been involved with at least one decision-making group experience. The choice of the organization was done on the basis that it is a relatively a new institution of importance; it was also possible to get from it the needed data.FindingsThe results of the study show that there is the presence of groupthink predictors of high trust, conformity and promotional leadership in decision-making groups in the organization. Furthermore, the diversity of group members alone indicates to be insufficient reason to avoid Groupthink. It is suggested that other important factors might be at play in group decision making including the influence of African cultural characteristics.Research limitations/implicationsThis study was limited to only one institution. For a study of this nature to be undertaken access to data could be a very significant problem. Limiting it to one organization we are familiar with made it a bit easy to achieve access.Practical implicationsGroup decision making and groupthink are rarely in discourse in Africa. Tanzania is not isolated from the world, and being a country that unity is a cultural tenet that is promoted at every level from the family to national level (Rwegelera, 2003; Tripp, 1999) effects of groupthink is reasonably conspicuous because of the inbuilt national culture that has shaped people to be tolerant and accepting of different perspectives, ethnic groups, religious and races (Tripp, 1999). The same tolerance and acceptance may be transferred to decision-making groups and easily cause the occurrence of groupthink that can affect the quality of decisions made.Social implicationsThe Tanzania government has dedicated itself to putting strict measures to prohibit unethical and erroneous decisions that cost the nation including reducing employees' misconduct. The findings of this study indicate that there are hidden aspects like groupthink that are not reached by those measures yet ironically impacts the decisions made in organizations and in turn costs organizations and the country at large and calls for the government and its institutions together with the private sector to be awakened and alerted if they are dedicated and concerned about the quality of decisions they make.Originality/valueThis is an original research work building on previous research. Some findings on groupthink and implications have Western origins. In Africa, we need to figure out what is making the continent not to make significant steps to change the social-economic environment. This study highlights to both African academics and leaders with no management background to make them understand groupthink as a phenomena that has implications to quality decisions. It will also prompt similar studies and therefore widen understanding on decisions making.

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