Conflict and Consensus: A General Theory of Collective Decisions

"Serge Moscovici and Willem 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 behavior sciences: a set of reliable empirical truths underpinned by coherent and parsimonious theory. The book is a classic statement of one of the most far-reaching implications for how we use and misuses groups in organizations" --Personnel Psychology "Their theoretical framework is illustrated in depth by numerous empirical investigations from around the world. . . .The book is essential reading for social and organizational psychologists, management scholars, and anyone working on intergroup relations and conflict issues." --European Foundation for Management Development Going beyond the traditional view that compromising is a negative process, where group members merely comply in order to sustain cohesion, Conflict and Consensus argues that conflict is at the root of group decisions and can be a positive force leading to change in opinion and innovation. Once elaborated, Moscovici and Doise′s theoretical framework is illustrated by numerous empirical investigations from around the world, outlining the necessary conditions required to generate consensus and construct new social realities. This wide-ranging and comprehensive book is essential reading for scholars and students of organization studies, social psychology, and management studies.

Serge Moscovici is Professor both at the Ecole de Haute Etudes en Sciences Sociale, Paris and at the New School for Social Research, New York. Willem Doise is Professor in the Faculty of Psychology at the University of Geneva.