Group conflict and conflict management in a decision conferencing environment in Singapore

The research reports on a study that investigated the effect of decision conferencing (a group decision support system or GDSS) on group conflict and conflict management in the Singapore context. 20 groups, involving 77 undergraduates, participated in this laboratory experiment. Groups attended a single decision making session where they were required to achieve a consensus decision on the two tasks that were allocated to them. Group members then reported on the nature of group conflict, conflict management strategies used, and their perceptions on the productivity of conflict. Groups using decision conferencing experienced more issue based conflict than the manual (baseline) groups, The results, however, do not support any of the other hypotheses presented. Decision conferencing proved to be more suitable for managing group conflict when solving complex tasks.