One of Janet Yellen's biggest challenges if confirmed as the Federal Reserve's next leader will be managing the Fed's fractious internal debates and the mixed signals these discussions often give the public. Ms. Yellen seems unlikely to usher in a sharp departure from the open and consensus-oriented style of current Fed chief Ben Bernanke, who is widely admired among central-bank officials for his inclusive approach. But some former officials see her trying to get the Fed to speak with a more coherent voice. Ms. Yellen makes her first public appearance on Capitol Hill as President Barack Obama's nominee to lead the Fed on Thursday when she testifies before the Senate Banking Committee. She is likely to be questioned about her thinking on the Fed's unorthodox policies—including bond-buying programs and a commitment to keep interest rates near zero—among other issues. In eight years running the Fed, Mr. Bernanke made the institution more open to differing views internally and gave officials latitude to air their disagreements to the public. It was an intentional departure from the approach of his predecessor, Alan Greenspan, whose views dominated the central bank. Mr. Bernanke made the Fed more transparent and less insular, but the more openly divergent voices at times sowed confusion in markets about the Fed's thinking and its often complicated plans. Several former Fed officials said it would be hard for Ms. Yellen to revert the Fed's old approach, even if she wanted to. "I think Janet certainly is somebody who believes in an open discussion," but her challenge would be to preserve that while not confusing markets, said Frederic Mishkin, a Columbia University professor and former Fed governor. She might try to impose more discipline on how other officials describe Fed decisions in their public statements. As vice chairwoman in 2011, she helped write a Fed policy on external communications that gently urged officials to "endeavor to enhance the public's understanding of monetary policy" and to try to follow the lead set out in official Fed policy statements, news conferences and minutes of policy meetings. Krishna Guha, vice chairman of ISI Group, an investment research firm, and former head of communications at the New York Fed, predicted Ms. Yellen wouldn't order her colleagues to stick to a script or try to suppress dissent, but rather try to see if the committee can "find a slightly more sober, orderly way of communicating these policy debates in public." A statement she helped write on the Fed's long-run objectives, which established a 2% inflation target, was achieved through a process patterned along Mr. Bernanke's consensus style. It produced a unanimous vote after months of internal debate among inflation-wary policy "hawks" such as Philadelphia Fed President Charles Plosser and policy "doves" preoccupied with high unemployment such as Chicago Fed President Charles Evans. "It was a bunch of people who had very different views about the world, but Janet was able to sort of bring them together around an agreed position everyone on the committee could follow," said Mr. Guha, who was at the Fed during that time. "That's an interesting and hopeful sign in terms of committee dynamics." Mr. Bernanke worked hard behind the scenes to get as many votes at policy meetings as possible, even when officials had disagreements. He rarely faced more than one or two formal dissents on Fed decisions. It is possible Ms. Yellen could accept more formal dissents as she tries to advance her policies. But that would come with costs—more official dissent could lead investors to doubt those policies will last. The inflation-target vote suggests that on big decisions Ms. Yellen would likely want a large consensus of officials behind her. When she was vice chairwoman, Ms. Yellen ran a Fed communication subcommittee that pushed successfully for quarterly news conferences by the chairman. The conferences were meant to send a more coherent message to the public about big decisions and are widely seen as a success among Fed officials. St. Louis Fed President James Bullard has been pressing for news conferences after every policy meeting, a step other officials see as possible, though likely not right away, in Ms. Yellen's tenure. If confirmed by the Senate, as Democrats predict, she would succeed Mr. Bernanke, whose term ends Jan. 31.