The term committee may be referred to as team, board, taskforce, commission etc. It implies the existence of a group to accomplish certain acts. It may be defined as "a group of persons to whom, as a group, some matter is committed".

It is sometimes difficult to draw sharp distinction between committees and other small groups. The essential characteristics of the committee is that it is a group charged with dealing with a specific problem or problem areas.

Committees are widely used, although they are often criticised for being time-consuming and inefficient. Research studies indicate that the right use of committees can result in a greater motivation, improved problem solving and increased output. In fact, the problem is not the existence of committees but rather the way they are conducted and where they are used.

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Nature of Committee

There is a wide variation in the authority assigned to committees and thus the nature of committees also varies. The following discussion will make it clear.

1.      Wide use of committees: Committees are a fact of modern organisational life. They are used in almost all types of organisations - government, non-government, autonomous, and so forth. They are operating in education institutions, industrial organisations and in purely commercial enterprises. In a university or in a bank, for example, there may be dozens of standing and /or special committees either to share in administration or advise the administration on policy. A board of directors of a company is also a committee, as are its various constituent groups such as the executive committee, the finance committee, the bonus committee, the pension committee, the audit committee, the salary and wages review committee, the grievance committee, the planning committee, and numerous other standing and special committees.

2.      Variety of functions and formalities of committees: A committee may be with or without managerial functions. Some committees may make decisions while others may receive information only. Some of them may have line authority (as the board of directors or the syndicate) while others only staff authority (as the bonus committee or the pension committee).

3.      Different roles of committee members: Members play certain roles in committees. Some try to encourage others to contribute, others follow. Some give information, others seek information. Some take an aggressive role, while others try to co-ordinate the group's efforts or negotiate a compromise in the event of disagreements.

 

Reasons for Using Committee

There are widespread uses of committees, the more important ones are discussed below:

1.      Superior judgement: The most important reason for the use of committees is to arrive at a superior judgement through group deliberations. It is increasingly being recognised that most problems of modern business require more experience, knowledge, and judgement than any individual possesses. Committees may help the clarification of problems and development of new ideas. Group interactions through committees have been found to be especially enlightening in policy matters. In complex business situations, however, group interactions may be superior to individual judgement.

2.      Motivation through participation: Membership of committees permit wider participation in decision-making. There are people who seem to be against every move unless they have been previously consulted. Committee membership may help improve the situation. Persons who take part

in decision-making through committee membership usually feel more enthusiastic about accepting and executing it.

3.      Avoiding concentration of authority in a single person: The use of committee can help avoid concentration of authority in a single person. There may also be a committee to make recommendations on a problem because the manager does not wish to take full responsibility for making a decision. Major financial and capital investment policies are also often developed by committees, partly because of unwillingness to give a single individual complete authority to make such important decisions.

4.      Sharing and transmitting of information: Another reason for using committee is sharing and transmitting information. All the members of a committee can learn about a project or problem simultaneously. Moreover, decisions and instructions can be received uniformly with opportunities for clarification. This may help avoid misunderstanding and save time.

5.      Achieving co-ordination: Committees are very useful for co-ordinating activities among various organisational units. The dynamics of modern organisations place a heavy burden on the managers to integrate plans and activities. Committees can help a lot in this direction by co-ordinating plans and policies as well as their implementation.

6.      Representation of interested groups: Committees are often formed with embership from different interested groups. Members of board of directors are often selected on the basis of groups interested in the company and, perhaps more often, on the basis of groups in which the company has an interest. When top executives have internal problems involving, for example, heads of various departments, they may choose committee members in such a way as to give these departments representation.

7.      Delaying or avoiding action: It is well known that committees are often appointed by managers when they want to delay or avoid action. At times, committee members are chosen in a way aimed at delaying action. Careful managers know that one of the surest ways to delay the handling of a problem, and even to postpone a decision indefinitely, is to appoint a committee to study the matter.

Making Committees Successful

The ever-increasing use of committees owes a great deal to the growing emphasis on group participation in organisations and group management. Yet committees are found to suffer from certain disadvantages which a manager may try to overcome by following the guidelines that appear below:

1.      Committee's authority is to be clearly stated: A committee's authority should be spelled out clearly so that each and every member knows whether their responsibility is to make recommendations, make decisions, or merely deliberate and give the committee chief some insights into the issue under discussion.

2.      Members must be selected carefully: If a committee is to be effective, the members must be representative of the interests they are expected to serve. They must also be competent to perform well in group. Moreover, the members should have the capacity for communicating well and reaching group decisions by integrated group thinking rather than by inappropriate compromise.

3.      The size should be workable: The size of committee is important. It should not be either too big or too small. If the committee is too big, there may not be enough opportunities for adequate communication among its members. If, on the other hand, the committee is too small it may fail to serve the purpose. Thus, as a general rule, a committee should be large enough to promote deliberation and include the breadth of expertise required for the job but not so large as to waste time or foster indecision. As is generally found, the optimum committee size is between five to fifteen members.

4.      Selecting a competent chairperson: In order to make committee meetings successful, the selection of the chairperson is crucial. A competent chairperson can minimise the limitations of a committee by a proper planning of the meeting, preparing the agenda carefully, conducting the meeting

effectively and integrating the ideas judiciously. As a matter of fact the success of committee meetings depend to a large extent upon the competence of the chairperson.

5.      Careful selection of the subject matter: The subject should be selected carefully. Committee actions are to be kept limited to those types of subjects which are suitable for group deliberations. Members should be given an opportunity to study the subject matter well ahead of the meeting time and for that matter, the agenda and relevant information are to be circulated among them accordingly.

6.      Committee must be cost effective: In the long run, committees are justified if the costs are offset by tangible and intangible benefits. It should be remembered, however, that although the tangible benefits are not very hard to be determined, it may be difficult to count the intangible benefits such as morale, motivation and training of committee members.

7.      Circulation of minutes: Circulation of minutes and checking conclusions are indispensable for effective communication in committees. Sometimes individuals may leave a meeting with varying interpretations as to what agreements were reached. This can be avoided by noting down minutes carefully and circulating them in draft form for correction or modification before the final copy is approved by the committee.

Disadvantages/ Drawbacks of Committees

Although there are many advantages for the use of committee, it also suffers from a number of drawbacks as discussed below:

1.      Time consuming and costly: Committee action is usually time consuming. In a committee meeting all the members have the right to be heard, to challenge and cross-examine the presentation of others, and to have their viewpoints discussed. If the committee is supposed to reach a unanimous decision, the discussion is likely to be lengthy. The monetary cost of committee discussion can also be very high. However, the cost in time and money becomes all the more disadvantageous when a committee is assigned a job that could just as well, or better, be solved by an individual.

2.      Cost of indecision: Another major drawback of committee is that the discussion of less important or peripheral subjects takes up valuable time and often results in adjournment without action. It is not unusual that some hidden agenda may also prevent the committee from reaching agreement on the official agenda of the meeting.

3.      Tyranny by the influential members: A few influential members, representing a minority view, may be in a strong position to impose their will on the majority of members. By their insistence on acceptance of their position, or of a compromise position, they may exercise an unwarranted tyranny over the majority. Sometimes, a single member may also control the committee through the power to withhold his vote.

4.      Taking compromise decision: If differences of opinion exist among committee members, the point at which all or the majority of the committee members can agree tends to be at the least common denominator. Small groups of people frequently seek - from feelings of politeness, mutual respect, and humility - to reach conclusions on which all can agree.

5.      Splitting of responsibility: This is one of the chief drawbacks of a committee. Since no one member of a committee feels personally accountable for the actions of the group, no individual feels personally responsible for any action taken by it. Individual members hardly feel the same degree of responsibility that they would if they personally were charged with the same task.

6.      Possibility of being self-destructive: Almost invariably, one person in a committee emerges as the leader. But when the chairman or a member becomes dominant, the nature of the committee as a decision-making group of equals changes. It then turns into a team composed of subordinate advisors or even "yes-men" following a leader.