To Dominate or to Collaborate? The Interaction of Conflict Styles in Special Police Units

Abstract: Special police units are high-risk organizations whose operations – hostage rescue, counter-terrorism, responding to attacks – exposes its members and the public to significant dangers. These types of organizations are characterized by hierarchical command and control structures to ensure clear responsibility and required reliability in high-risk situations. Studies investigat-ing leaders’ conflict approach unanimously come to the conclusion that collaborating is the most effective conflict resolution style with dominating and avoiding consistently showing negative effects. The present study tests the effectiveness of leaders’ conflict styles in a novel context, high-risk special police units, and introduces contingencies. Consistent with prior research, collaborating proofs to be the most effective approach also in command and control structures. Dominating and avoiding no longer show negative effects when embedded in a cooperative culture and even increase the positive effects of collaborating. The optimal leader-ship conflict resolution culture appears to be a collaborative foundation balanced with com-peting and avoiding.

Keywords: Conflict Styles, Special Police Units, Leadership, Organizational Culture, Conflict, Hierarchical System