Which of the following techniques of decision making involves a process for arriving at an evaluation of decisions, in which selected individuals are asked to respond individually to key questions about a problem, then are provided with a summary of the responses, all members have given and invited to respond again?

Solution

The Delphi technique is an approach to generating new ideas or problem-solving amongst a group or team. Each member or interested party submits his or her recommendations or views on the issue under review to a central contact point. All ideas generated in this way are then circulated to all those participants in the process, who then have the opportunity to submit comments on them. This process is repeated until a consensus emerges. Although time consuming, it can be an effective approach to the management of change. Delphi method was developed way back in 1950s by Olaf Helmer and Norman Dalker at the RAND Corporation to forecast the impact of technology on warfare. It was incorporated to reduce the range of responses and arrive at a consensus.