This study sought to determine the effect of four different structured group decision-making techniques in an undergraduate business communication course on the quality of a written assignment and on student reaction to the decision-making technique. The effects of gender, age, and academic intellectual ability were also investigated. The four group techniques investigated were reverse brainstorming, dialectical inquiry, devil's advocacy, and consensus. The sample consisted of 120 (64 males, 56 females) undergraduate students enrolled in four sections of a junior-senior level business communication course. Each experimental and control group consisted of four randomly assigned students. Six groups were used in each experimental decision-making technique and six groups were used as control groups. An analytical memorandum report written by the students and rated by business communication experts and a self-reporting questionnaire were used to determine the treatment effect. The control and consensus technique groups used significantly lower levels of debate and criticism. The control groups produced written documents that were of a significantly higher quality than the groups using the decision-making techniques. Consensus, devil's advocacy, and reverse brainstorming groups produced the next highest scores. Dialectical inquiry groups produced the lowest scores. In addition, gender, age, and academic intellectual ability did not correlate significantly with the quality of written document and student reaction. These results imply that business communication educators do not need to assign students to groups by gender, age, or academic intellectual ability. In fact, when using these structured group techniques in the business communication classroom, random assignment of groups is recommended. (Contains 33 references.) (JB)