Background Leadership and conflict management are essential skills that nursing students need to acquire and practise. There is a gap in the existing literature on conflict management strategies, the role of leadership styles in conflict management and the relationship between leadership and conflict management styles among nursing students.

Aim To investigate nursing students’ leadership and conflict management styles and determine the relationship between their leadership and conflict management styles.

Method A descriptive correlational study was conducted with 250 third-year and fourth-year students at a nursing college in Saudi Arabia. Participants completed the Leadership Styles Questionnaire and Rahim Organizational Conflict Inventory-II. Descriptive statistics were used, and correlation and regression analyses were conducted.

Results Overall, the democratic style of leadership and the integrating style of conflict management were the most favoured by participants, while the laissez-faire leadership style and the dominating style of conflict management were the least favoured. Significant positive correlations were established between the leadership styles of participants and their conflict management styles. The regression analysis showed a significant predictive power of leadership styles, specifically the democratic and autocratic styles, on 30% of the variance in conflict management styles.

Conclusion Leadership skills are essential for clinical decision-making, while leadership style can affect the choice of conflict management style. Nurse educators have a crucial role in teaching and modelling effective leadership and conflict management for students.