This study focuses on the relationship among amount of conflict experienced, the style of its management, individual satisfaction, and decision quality of small, task-oriented groups. In all, 129 subjects took part in a task requiring a group product. Data suggested that a curvilinear relationship exists between the number of conflict episodes experienced by group members and the subsequent quality of their decisions. The study also found that integrative conflict-management strategies were associated with higher quality solutions than were distributive strategies. Satisfaction was found to be negatively related to conflict. Interaction between number of conflict episodes and management style was discussed in terms of its implications for increasing decision quality and future research. Downloaded from 32 oriented groups. The focal variable was the group's quality of solution, or outcome. Our goal was to assess the contribution that each of the other variables may make in increasing the quality. A brief review of each of the variables will follow prior to reporting methodology, results, and discussion. CONFLICT DEFINITIONA cursory review of the conflict literature reveals that one of the problems facing the comparability of research results is the definition and conceptualization of conflict (Deutsch