Improving group decision making: a fuzzy GSS approach

Group decision-making methods have been developed extensively, but their adaptation for use in organizations has been problematic. According to Arrow's (1963) Impossibility theorem, one conceivable reason is that a group decision outcome could never satisfy all decision makers' individual preferences. In order to accommodate individual decision maker's preferences in a group decision-making task, this correspondence presents a fuzzy multiperson multicriteria decision making (MMCDM) model and a structured group decision-making process. The fuzzy MMCDM model includes fuzzy individual preference generation and group preference aggregation. The structured decision-making process keeps the group interaction on track, so that the fuzzy MMCDM model can be effectively applied to the group decision-making task. Based on the proposed model and the decision-making process, a fuzzy group support system (GSS) has been developed and applied to a group assessment task. An empirical study was conducted and the experiment results showed that use of the fuzzy GSS enhanced individual understanding, consensus, and satisfaction of the group decision outcome.