A good point. I wonder who does have that knowledge?

John Boyd's concept of OODA loop seems to be relevant here:

The OODA loop (for observe, orient, decide, and act) is a concept originally applied to the combat operations process, often at the strategic level in both the military operations. It is now also often applied to understand commercial operations and learning processes. The concept was developed by military strategist and USAF Colonel John Boyd.

OODA stands for:

• Observation: the collection of data by means of the senses
• Orientation: the analysis and synthesis of data to form one's current mental perspective
• Decision: the determination of a course of action based on one's current mental perspective
• Action: the physical playing-out of decisions

To put this into rationality-language:

• Look at the territory;
• Draw a correct map of the territory based on what you saw;
• Plan the route through the map to where you want to be;
• Hit the road.

The concept itself, as described on Wikipedia, doesn't mention groups per se, but Boyd's work on OODA seems to include specific thoughts on groups. Here's a related quote from Wikipedia:

[Boyd] stated that most effective organizations have a highly decentralized chain of command that utilizes objective-driven orders, or directive control, rather than method-driven orders in order to harness the mental capacity and creative abilities of individual commanders at each level.

Good question. I think the first place I'd look is business, followed by the military (probably at more the strategic than the tactical level). There's probably also some institutional wisdom floating around in academia, although I'm not sure what fields I'd look at first; most of the research I've personally been involved in didn't involve much distribution of decision-making between team members and thus was something of a degenerate case.