Toward an understanding of the antecedents and consequences of shared frames in a group decision-making context.

摘要

The purpose of this research was to investigate the under-researched role of shared frames in group decision making. A shared frame was defined in terms of similarity in the way that group members interpret and categorize strategic issues in terms of assumptions and categories (threat/opportunity perceptions). It is argued that the notion of a shared frame provides a valuable means for understanding how decision makers collectively make sense of ill-structured strategic issues in a group setting and is conceptually appealing because it integrates group, cognitive, negotiation, and decision making literatures.;There were two fundamental questions of concern in this research. First, what are the factors that contribute or impede the development of shared interpretations in groups? Second, what are the decision processes and outcomes that result from arriving at a group representation of the underlying issues?;The research was carried out in two phases. Initially, an exploratory examination of shared frames was conducted in the context of various mental health regional planning groups across Ohio. This field work served as a forum for model building and hypothesis generation and was then followed by a laboratory experiment, in which two hundred and seventy-six students participated in an adaptation of the Towers Market multi-party simulation. After meeting in constituency groups, participants formed groups of four to make decisions on a number of issues. Decision rule (unanimity/majority rule) and constituency commitment (high/low) were manipulated to investigate their impact on the development of shared frames. Perceptions about implementation, how the group deals with new issues, and process/outcome satisfaction were measured as consequences of group cognition. The operationalization of shared frames involved the use of three forms of agreement.;Results showed that groups started out with very low agreement on both category and assumption frames, but significantly increased the level of consensus following discussion. The pattern of findings highlights the need to better understand the phenomena underlying a shared frame and to focus on the rudiments of the group processes involved. Fruitful directions for further research are suggested.