ABSTRACT
Imagine that you have been working with a small group of colleagues – work colleagues or college friends – on a project. The group has met on a number of occasions and differences of opinion have started to emerge on how best to proceed. Up until now the group has got along well and progress on the project has been satisfactory. You have some strong disagreements with the views of others in the group, but at the same time you have a common view with one or two other group members. The group meets again and the differences of opinion among its members are now preventing progress on the project and, more worryingly, threatening to develop into outright conflict within the group. If something is not done to reduce conflict, influence some group members to change their minds and develop a stronger sense of co-operation, the group may be in danger of being so dysfunctional that it will have to disband. The consequence of this would be failure on the project and individuals taking away a bad experience of group work. This bad experience might affect how they interact subsequently in small group settings.
