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292 Chapter 11

tudent groups are a staple of university and college campuses and are often
included in planning campus extracurricular activities, such as bringing in out-
Sside speakers to complement the learning that takes place in the classroom. On
the surface, this kind of planning may appear straightforward and free of conflict, but
often it is not. Lori, Kevin, Chris, Diedre, and Tony are members of a university
Speaker Committee charged with planning their campus’s speaker series. Kevin,
Chris, Diedre, and Tony have volunteered for this group. Lori, as the elected student
senator from the College of Arts and Humanities, chairs this committee.
Lori encouraged Tony to join the group because his interest in politics gives him
access to numerous contacts locally and nationally. Tony talked her into encouraging
his friend Kevin to volunteer after Chris and Diedre had volunteered. The group
needed a fifth person and Kevin was eager to join. Lori hesitated because she ques-
tioned Kevin’s commitment, but ultimately trusted Tony’s judgment. Their first meet-
ing did not begin well at all. Kevin, as Lori predicted, did not show up or contact
anyone about his absence. Tony was quiet because he did not want to upset Lori any
more than she already was and did not want to hurt his friendship with Kevin. When
Lori asked for ideas for next year’s speakers, she quickly learned that the rest of the
members had different ideas about speakers than she did. Tony gently suggested that
he and other students were tired of the same old “political” and education topics of
immigration and terrorism issues. He thought it was time for some fun and hoped
they could schedule entertaining speakers. Diedre confronted Tony directly by
expressing a strong opinion that the speakers had to have educational value. Chris
tried to mediate the conflicting opinions. Lori adjourned the meeting and called for
everyone to bring more ideas to the next meeting. As she was leaving, she sarcastically
remarked, “This is going to be fun!” Tony promised to get Kevin to the next meeting,
after which Lori replied, “Good luck.”
Small groups with different member qualities, affiliations, and viewpoints are
ideally suited to produce the best decisions. However, the very characteristics that
give the group diversity also provide the seeds of conflict. How to get along in this
rapidly changing and diverse world is a topic on just about everyone’s agenda. Pick up
any popular general interest magazine and you will probably see an article about how
to get along at work, at home, with friends. Sometimes, what you read may give you
the impression that conflict should be avoided at all costs! The truth is that whenever
individuals come together in any sort of social context, disagreement and conflict are
inevitable. Trying to avoid conflict is futile and unwise.
Conflict is necessary to effective decision making and problem solving. Conflict
should occur during group problem solving; if it doesn’t, the group members aren’t
taking advantage of their diversity and are being swayed by their personal and infor-
mational biases (see Chapter 9). Failure to express disagreement and avoiding discus-
sion of conflict-producing issues lead directly to ineffective problem solving and poor
decision making. 1
Although too much conflict can hurt a group or even destroy it, our experience
has been that groups of students have too little rather than too much conflict. Most of
2
our students are afraid of disagreement and prefer groups with little or no conflict.
The more conflict members experience, the more negatively they view the group

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