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Large group decision making : creating decision support approaches at scale
Carrascosa I., Springer International Publishing, New York, NY, 2018. 140 pp. Type: Book (978-3-030010-26-3)
Date Reviewed: Oct 16 2019

Decision making is a daily task with which everyone is familiar. People make decisions all the time, for example, by going to work in the morning, deciding what to eat, and so on. We are constantly faced with situations where we need to make decisions, some of which can impact whole lives. For example, managers are asked to maximize the benefit of their firm and reduce or prevent loss. Such decisions could have an unpredictable impact.

A decision can be made as an individual or as a group. A group decision making process is more complex than an individual decision making process. Furthermore, the larger the group, the more complex the decision making process becomes, because group decision making is actually consensus based. Consensus finding is complex and can take longer.

This book’s six chapters cover the basics and fundamental rules of individual, group, and large group decision making (LGDM) processes. The author identifies consensus as the fundamental rule supporting (large) group decision making. Consensus must be reached and accepted (or adopted) by everyone, or at least the majority of group members. The author presents different ways to reach a consensus related to group size, the expertise level of group members, and so on. Moreover, the author concisely explains how experts can reach a consensus, regardless of whether the decision is made by a minority or not. He further discusses how the consensus process is carried out and how it can be supported by a majority.

The book provides many real-world examples of decision making. However, an important example is missing, namely the behavior of political party members who individually follow a consensus of the central committee to support the voting of the party candidate, even if the candidate is not largely accepted in the party base. And another example is the way hooligans quickly reach a consensus after their favorite team loses a football game. I can remember many hooligan scenes where only two or three members make a decision and the decision finds quick consensus among the group. I would appreciate knowing how such ad hoc consensus is reached, and why many people will follow an action regardless of the potential danger.

I appreciate chapters 4 and 2. Chapter 4 succinctly describes the different categories of LGDM, clearly showing how consensus-based decisions are reached, or how a decision is made based on a large consensus. Chapter 2 provides readers with a background of what consensus is, how it is built, and how it is measured. The chapter is very interesting. I verified the mathematical formulae and appreciate them.

Chapter 5 discusses some LGDM implementations in the real world. Based on my background, I especially appreciate the sections on social large group decision support systems (LGDSS) and emergency LGDM.

The book’s weakness is its structure, that is, the sequencing of the chapters. Each individual chapter is well structured and clearly presented. However, the book as a whole could be better structured, and thus would be more judicious for readers, if the state of the art--that is, chapter 4’s conducted literature review on LGDM--had followed the introduction. That way readers could get into the “what is going on in the scene” and from there start asking questions about LGDM. Only then can the central point, a decision consensus within a LGDM process, be presented (that is, chapter 2). Scaling up the group decision making process (chapter 3) would then show the way to reaching consensus in a larger group via decision making. Chapter 5 presents the application of LGDM in the real world and chapter 6 concludes the book. The book should thus be read in the following sequence: chapter 1, followed by chapter 4, and then chapters 2, 3, 5, and 6.

Besides the minor weakness noted above, the book is readable, fluid, and understandable. However, readers must have a mathematical background to follow the formulae. I recommend this book for operations research analysts, people in decision making roles, politicians, as well as the larger public, even if they lack a background in mathematics.

Reviewer:  Thierry Edoh Review #: CR146734 (2001-0007)
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