BUILDING CONSENSUS IN STRATEGIC DECISION-MAKING - SYSTEM DYNAMICS AS A GROUP SUPPORT SYSTEM

System dynamics was originally founded as a method for modeling and si mulating the behavior of industrial systems. In recent years it is inc reasingly employed as a Group Support System for strategic decision-ma king groups. The model is constructed in direct interaction with a man agement team, and the procedure is generally referred to as group mode l-building. The model can be conceptual (qualitative) or a full-blown (quantitative) computer simulation model. In this article, a case is d escribed in which a qualitative system dynamics model was built to sup port strategic decision making in a Dutch government agency.Since peop le from different departments held strongly opposite viewpoints on the strategy, the agency had discussed its strategic problem for more tha n a year, but was obviously not able to reach consensus. The applicati on of group model-building was successful in integrating opposite poin ts of view, as well as in fostering consensus and creating commitment. The purpose of the article is twofold: first, to illustrate the proce ss of group model-building with system dynamics; second, to evaluate w hy it was successful. Evaluation results reveal the importance of both systemic thinking through model-building and the role of the facilita tor in catalyzing the strategic decision-making process.