An Empirical Study Measuring Conflict in Problem-Solving Groups Which are Assigned Different Decision Rules

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Abstract
The paper has two goals. First, to find out whether majority rule or a unanimous decision rule would facilitate more task conflict. Second, to develop several operational measures of task conflict. The study used an experimental design using 18 groups. The group discussions were tape recorded and coded using the valence coding system (Hoffman & Maier, 1964, 1967). Eight operational measures of task conflict are presented and used to test the main hypothesis. The results indicate that in unequal power groups an assigned majority rule facilitates more task conflict than an assigned unanimous rule or no assigned decision rule. The eight measures of task conflict are shown to be useful but require additional refinement.