Conflict and Consensus

`Useful to those interested in group dynamics, the book discusses topics such as groups′ functions, decision making, group conflict and consensus and the role of values in that process, and communication′ - Choice`A complex and sophisticated argument is fully and clearly detailed by the authors. From a dispute resolution point of view, their analysis and conclusions are important as they address some of the basic concerns that arise in any disputing situation. A careful study of the material offered will be well repaid in one′s understanding of, and ability to assist in, the process of consensus development for groups of any substantial size′ - The Alternative Newsletter`Essential reading for social and organizational psychologists, management scholars and anyone working on intergroup relations and conflict issues′ - European Foundation for Management Development`Moscovici and Doise′s remarkable monograph supplies the strongest argument possible for revisiting experimental social psychology and to go beyond the intuitively attractive but theoretically insubstantial management literature on groups. They have conducted an exhaustive and masterly review of the research evidence, convincingly and scrupulously demonstrating something quite unusual in the behavioural sciences: a set of reliable empirical truths underpinned by coherent and parsimonious theory... The central theme is... "group polarization", or the tendency for groups to resolve to consensus around more extreme positions than the average positions of their individual members... The authors′ thesis is fundamentally social democratic and laden with optimism. In the absence of traditional authority or appeal to scientific truth, consensus in society can only be achieved by open exchange. Conflict and consensus, far from being hostile opposing principles, are part of a constructive dialectic, which can culminate in no less than what they call the "reinvigoration of society"... the book is a classic statement in one of the most important domains of psychology, and has the most far-reaching implications for how we use and misuse groups in organizations′ - Personnel Psychology

• IntroductionThe ProblemWhat Use Are Groups?The Elementary Forms of Participation in Decisions and ConsensusExtreme Conflicts and ConsensusesThe Effects of Private or Public DiscussionsConflicts and Extreme ConsensusesThe Role of Values`Warm and Cold′ CommunicationsConsensus in Closed and Open GroupsDecision-Making