Introduction

This chapter introduces an information exchange framework for the study of decision making by groups and teams. While decision making by interactive units has been given recent impetus by technology that supports virtual teams, fundamental issues in the efficacy of interactive groups and teams remain. The differences between inferences from lab-based experimental studies and studies of organizational teams indicate some of the basic issues. Following a review of the results of a range of studies, it is suggested that the social structure of groups and teams is a source of process losses in these decision-making units that has not been adequately recognized or defined in available studies. Extensive background results in the study of group processes in support of this claim are cited. An account of ill-structured decision making as information exchange is then introduced. In this account, it is recognized that information exchange is in part a social process that introduces social risk to group and team members. This risk occurs because the receipt of negative evaluations can be a meaningful source of status loss for members. The magnitude of the loss can be expected to depend on judgments of the status distance between the source and recipient of the evaluation. Subsequent chapters that offer analytical, numerical, and empirical support for the information exchange perspective that is introduced are briefly reviewed.