Effects of member participation and commitment in group decision making on influence, satisfaction, and decision riskiness.

Divided 120 psychology students into 40 3-member groups assigned to discuss structured decision issues. Participation in only 1 of 3 decision-making phases (generation, evaluation, or choice) constituted partial participation, in contrast to complete participation. Group members were committed or not committed to carrying out the decisions reached. Results indicate that perceived intragroup influence and satisfaction were greatest with complete participation. With partial participation, influence and satisfaction were greatest in the choice phase. Although perceived influence was greater under commitment conditions, satisfaction was greater under noncommitment conditions. Decision riskiness was affected by neither treatment. (17 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)