Improving group decision making: a fuzzy GSS approach

Group decision making methods such as Multi-Criteria Decision Making (MCDM) have been developed extensively, but their organizational use for group decision making has been difficult. According to Arrow’s Impossibility Theorem, one possible reason is that a group decision outcome could never satisfy every decision maker’s individual preference. This paper proposes a fuzzy GSS (Group Support System) approach to improve the quality of the group decision outcome. The fuzzy GSS approach integrates a fuzzy MCDM model and a structured group decision making process with a GSS. The fuzzy MCDM model includes fuzzy individual preference generation and group aggregation. Supported by the GSS, the structured decision making process makes group participation effective. The proposed approach aims at providing more decision information, and enhancing group consensus, satisfaction and understanding of the decision outcome. This paper also postulates that the fuzzy GSS approach enhances group consensus, satisfaction and understanding of the group decision outcome. An empirical study was conducted to test the research predictions.