The effects of personal preferences for conflict management on decision quality under cooperative and competitive conditions

Abstract

The effects of personal preference for conflict management on the quality of decisions under cooperative and competitive conditions have not been known, partly due to the concentration on bimodal research designs in studying conflict behavior. Using a multimodal design, in which the modes were determined by using the Conflict Management Survey (hall, 1969), 354 male subjects were assigned to dyads, homogeneous in their stated conflict management preference. Data were collected about their decision quality on two decision tasks, the NASA Moon Survival Task and the Kerner Decision Task, under conditions of cooperation and competition. Cooperative conditions were established through the potential for cash awards for quality decisions which were divided equally between the individual members of the most accurate dyad. Competitive conditions were established through the potential for cash awards for quality decisions which were awarded to the most accurate team, but went to the dyad member who contributed to the most of his individual decisions from an individual pre-rank to the joint rank.