What are the advantages and disadvantages of committees in organization?

A committee is a group of persons within an organization to whom, as a group, some matter is committed. The committee may be formed for a limited duration or a standing committee. Also the members of the team may or may not have other responsibility in the organization in addition to those as a member of the committee.

The biggest advantage of committee is that it provides a convenient means of a larger number of people exchange, ideas and information ad take a joint decisions. By careful selection of the membership of committees, it is possible to bring together a wide range of ideas, expertise and interests together. When committee consists of people representing different department and functions in the department, it helps to ensure that all aspects of a decision are considered before final decision. Also, as decisions are taken jointly be all the committee members, their acceptance by all the departments represented on the committee is easier.

Major disadvantage of committee is that they usually require considerable expenditure of total manpower in the committee work. The committees are also known to cause excessive delays in decision making and in taking action. Frequently, an absence of a clear cut authority and responsibility for results, the committee becomes tend to take decision that represent compromise between dissenting views rather than an optimal balance of conflicting requirements. In some situations, where one member or a small group is significantly more powerful than others, some people may impose their decision on the committee. In this way the more powerful members gain power beyond the intended limits. Further, this power is not accompanied by matching responsibility.