Your objective is to gain experience in using the nominal group technique. The class is divided into groups of three to five people, and each group appoints one member as spokesperson to report the group’s experiences to the whole class. Here is the scenario.
Assume the role of a self-managed work team. The team is one of the best-performing teams in the company, and the members like and get along well with each other. Currently, team members are paid an hourly wage based on seniority. The company has decided to change how members of all self-managed teams are paid and has asked each team to propose a new pay plan. One plan will be chosen from those proposed and instituted for all teams. Use the nominal group technique to decide on a pay plan by following these steps:
1. Each team member comes up with ideas for alternative pay plans on his or her own and writes them down on a piece of paper.
2. Team members present their ideas one by one while one member records them on a piece of paper. There is no discussion of the merits of the different alternatives at this point.
3. Team members discuss the ideas one by one and raise any questions or objections.
Critical evaluation takes place at this step.
4. Each team member privately ranks all the alternatives from most preferred to least preferred.
5. The team chooses the alternative that receives the highest ranking.
After the decision has been made, team members discuss the pros and cons of using the nominal group technique to decide on this one.
When your group has completed the exercise, the spokesperson will report back to the whole class on the decision the group reached as well as the group’s assessment of the pros and cons of the nominal group technique.