What Are the Advantages and Disadvantages of the Devil's Advocate

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The Answer is Research generally indicates that either the devil's advocate or dialectical inquiry methods are superior to consensus in decision making. The drive in consensus to get everyone to agree on an alternative can result in "groupthink"-a situation when all try to overcome their personal reservations in order to show unanimity and be a team player even if the alternative chosen is defective. On the positive side, however, consensus results in a positive team approach to implementation. Both devil's advocate and dialectical inquiry are conflict-oriented and can create problems in implementation. Nevertheless, both work to ensure that an alternative is critically evaluated before agreement is reached. Both need to be set up in advance of the discussion. In the case of the devil's advocate, one person or group is assigned the task of finding everything wrong with a particular alternative. The advocate must propose nothing, but only criticize the alternative in question. In contrast, dialectical inquiry requires two separate proposals be developed. Both sides must defend their own alternative and attack the alternative presented by the other.
The limitations of the devil's advocate are as follows. (a) Only one proposal is presented. It is either accepted or rejected. Thus, participants don't have an opportunity to compare the alternative under consideration with another possibility. (b) Because the devil's advocate defends nothing, the person(s) taking this position may be criticized for "taking cheap shots" at an alternative everyone likes and may hesitate to continue the attack in the face of group pressure. Thus, the devil's advocate must have the strong support of the leader of the group in order to be effective.
The limitations of dialectical inquiry are as follows. (a) Two people or groups must spend much time preparing their position for debate in front of an audience. The emphasis may turn to presentation skills and "scoring points" over serious analysis. (b) The win-lose nature of this approach may create ill feelings and conflict among participants. Thus, people on the losing side may find difficulty joining the "winners" in implementing the alternative chosen.

What Are the Advantages and Disadvantages of the Devil's Advocate

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