Assignment Instructions

The ability to work as a team and to be able to achieve consensus in today’s work place is an important skill. Before we explore the world of work,laborand management, we will study the nature of consensus decision making as a means of attempting to bridge the gap between the two sides in a collective bargaining simulation.

Read:

1. A Short Guide to Consensus Decision Making: An Alternative to Robert’s Rules of Order for Groups, Organizations, and ad hoc Assemblies that Want to Operate by Consensus
2. Consensus Decision Making

Forum:

1. What are some of the advantages of a consensus decision-making process over traditional methods of decision-making, such as majority voting and Roberts Rules of Order? What are the disadvantages to consensus decision-making, if any?
2. Describe the conditions that underpin consensus building. Which of these conditions do you think is the most important?
3. Have you ever participated in a consensus decision-making process or familiar with an example of such an experience? Describe the experience(s).

Forum assignments are to be completed in the [Forums] tab. Do not submit your responses in the [Assignments] tab or anywhere else on Sakai (you will not get credit if your submission is not in the right place, even if you submit it on time). Click on your group number in the [Forums] section and submit your posts. Each week your TA will set up the discussion thread to which you will be submitting your responses.

If you haven’t yet done so, you may want to review the brief PowerPoint presentation on active reading techniques in the [Resources] tab.