Conflict is often perceived as being negative, destructive and undesirable. Many people go to great lengths to deny the existence of conflict, or to avoid dealing with it, even when they acknowledge its existence. This is because conflict is conventionally perceived as being synonymous with fighting and the creation of winners and losers.

The Conflict Style profile describes a system for the highly collaborative and communicative approach to conflict resolution and a methodology for looking at the context in which conflict arises in the first place.