Ability to manage a conflict is a skill that can be improved by learning which can be improved by learning how your most preferred mode supports or obstructs your efforts to resolve a conflict. This assessment helps you do exactly that.
Many people make the mistake of equating conflict with fighting - arguing, blaming, name calling etc. This makes conflict seem like a dangerous and destructive thing. However once we recognize that conflict is simply a condition in which people's concerns appear to be incompatible, it becomes clear that fighting is just one way of dealing with it.
This approach allows us to recognize that that we have choices in how we deal with conflict. It directs our attention to the ways we can control the conflict process through our choices, so that we can manage it constructively.
In the management of conflicts, the styles of the persons involved in a conflict - either as a group or an individual play a critical role. If the individual is a team or group leader then the role becomes all the more critical. Some styles may promote a search for solutions whereas others may lead to a deadlock. The general orientation of a group may be an avoidance orientation or an approach orientation. Avoidance is based on fear and is dysfunctional, while approach is based on hope and is functional for effectiveness. Avoidance is characterized by a tendency to deny, rationalize or avoid the conflict. Approach orientation is characterized by making efforts to find a solution by one's own efforts or with the help of others.