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Category: Dialectical Inquiry

  • Self-Managed Teams

    In the last byte, we looked at the concept of Dialectic Inquiry and Quality Circles as Group Decision Making techniques. In today’s byte, we look at Self-Managed Teams in a bit more detail.

    We have discussed about Self-Managed Team, however in the context of comparing it with Quality Circles and Quality Teams  we would need to note that the self-managed teams are more broad focused and do not limit themselves to quality or related production problems. The decisions self-managed teams do could also include work scheduling, job assignments, staffing etc – all these were once reserved only for the managers. Another difference is that these self managed teams have a delegated authority, unlike quality-circles which have a predominantly advisory role.

    There is however a risk of falling trap to the issues of becoming a cohesive group – groupthink issues could arise. So the key to break this is by encouraging and welcoming dissent among members. This helps break down complacency and sent in motion a process the ability to make better decisions – methods like dialectic inquiry or devil’s advocacy would be really useful here.

  • Dialectical Inquiry and Quality Circles

    In the last byte, we looked at Nominal Group Technique and Delphi Technique of group decision making. In today’s byte, we look at Dialectical Inquiry and the concept of quality circles. 

    Dialectic Inquiry essentially refers to two opposing sets of recommendations and the debate between these opposing recommendations. While it sounds like conflict – it is a constructive approach as it helps the benefits and limitations of both sets of ideas emerge.

    The key to make this method effective is the ability to look beyond the win-lose as an individual attitude and instead focus on reaching the most effective solutions for all the concerned parties. Framing thus becomes an important aspect when detailing the decision in question.

    Quality circles refer to the method where a small voluntary group meets up to provide inputs on solving quality or production problems. It could be seen as a means to extending participative decision making in teams. Managers generally listen to the recommendations and implement the same.

    This is a bottom up approach that helps the manager gets valuable inputs into his decision making while still retaining authority in the decision making.