Collaborative Production of Proposals in Group Decision Making

Abstract

This study suggests that argument as a language game in group interaction can be analyzed, using a discourse-analytic approach, to inform small group scholars about the relationship between influence and decision outcomes. To accomplish its purpose, the study analyzes a decision-making episode in an organizational group and focuses upon one specific speech act, the proposal. As a speech act, the proposal is central to the decision-making quality of the group in that it entails the structural expansion necessary for consensus-seeking discussion. The article shows how the development of the proposal in group interaction can satisfy the requirements for effective group decisions as outlined by Hirokawa (1988).