Do conflict management styles affect group decision making? Evidence from a longitudinal field study

This study examined the relationship between group conflict management styl es and effectiveness of group decision making in 11 ongoing, naturally occu rring workgroups from 2 large U.S. organizations. The major postulate of th e study was that groups develop norms regarding how they will manage confli cts that carry over to affect of her activities, such as decision making, e ven when these activities do not involve open conflict. To determine the im pact of conflict management style on decision effectiveness, a longitudinal design was used that identified conflict management styles in the initial portion of each learn's series of meetings and then analyzed a group decisi on taken in a meeting near the end of that series. Group conflict managemen t styles were determined using observational methods, and decision effectiv eness was measured using multiple indices that tapped member, facilitator, and external observer viewpoints. Task complexity also was considered as a possible moderating variable. The findings suggest that groups that develop ed integrative conflict management styles made move effective decisions tha n groups that utilized confrontation and avoidance styles. Groups that neve r developed a stable style were also less effective than groups with integr ative styles.