Making the Team: A Guide for Managers

The Information Dependence Problem

Teams presumably have access to a broader range of decision-making resources and, hence, should be better equipped to make high-quality decisions than any single person could alone. By pooling their different backgrounds, training, and experience, team members have at least the potential to work in a more informed fashion than would be the case were the decision left to any single person. The fact that team members are dependent upon one another for information is the information dependence problem. As an example of information dependence in groups and the dire consequences it can have, consider the case in Box 5-1.

When the team consists of members who come from different functional areas—with different areas ...