Decision Making in Citizens Groups

The author examined the organizational behavior of decision making within the Greater Montreal Anti-Poverty Coordinating Committee (GMAPCC) during circumstances of confrontation. The (GMAPCC) was founded in the spring of 1970 as a coalition of local English-speaking citizen’s groups composed of the city’s poor, mainly welfare recipients. By 1972, GMAPCC had adopted a statement of principles that covered a broad range of topics: jobs and income, housing and urban renewal, education, justice, consumer protection, mass media, democracy, women, racism, the elderly, workers and unions, language and nationalism, and big business. The aim of the author’s analysis (circa 1972) was to identify the components and characteristics of decision making so that the effects of critical variables, arising from confrontation pressures on the organization could be accurately assessed. Using the GMAPCC video tape records, the author found that patterns of decision making emerged that dealt with specific types of decisions. The presence of certain participating interests played a significant role in determining which patterns emerged. Critical variables apart from the procedural, range, and staging components of decision making also determined which operating principles emerged. However, conflicts among the member groups and the organizers led to the demise of the GMAPCC in 1975.

Master's Thesis

McGill University

Montreal

1972

vi-62p.

en