This study attempts to focus on dispatchers working in Fire Department’s Emergency and Rescue Command Centers and explores the impacts of dispatchers’ leader-member exchange (LMX) and role recognition on role conflict. Dispatchers of Emergency and Rescue Command Centers play a role of boundary spanner, connecting the public, immediate supervisor, and colleagues in each of fire service units. These boundary spanners usually face huge levels of role conflict, which probably causes some negative consequences. For examining this issue, this study confines our research scope to dispatchers of Emergency and Rescue Command Centers in the middle area of Taiwan (including Taichung, Changhua, and Nantou Fire Departments). In total, we collected 88 valid questionnaires. This study employs fuzzy set qualitative comparative analysis (fsQCA) to analyze the data in order to transcend the limitations of traditional multivariate techniques. This method can be used to analyze a small-sized sample and recognize several causal solutions leading to a preferred outcome. The result suggests that LMX’s affect, loyalty, contribution, and professional respect dimensions are one of sufficient conditions for reducing role conflict. However, role recognition is not the sufficient conditions leading to low levels of role conflict. This study expects to provide strategic suggestions relevant to managing human resources and training employees for Fire Departments.
