leadership in crises, disasters, and catastrophes

IntroductionTh e importance of leadership in emergency manage-ment is widely acknowledged (Demiroz & Kapucu, 2012; Kapucu & Van Wart, 2008; Rubin, 1985; Waugh & Streib, 2006). Popular culture reinforces this focus. It is common for mass media outlets (newspaper, televi-sion, cinema) to demand or portray charismatic lead-ers who “save the day” by simultaneously handling in-formation, resources, and wild authority (Littlefi eld & Quenette, 2007). It is also common for real situations to be compared to these idealized images and for individuals to be hailed as heroes, as was the case for Rudy Giuliani after 9/11, or decried as villain, as was the case for both George W. Bush and Michael Brown after the impacts of Hurricane Katrina. But it is not enough to know lead-ers matter and make summary judgments. It is vitally important to understand how leadership in emergency management really works and the range of issues, con-siderations, and variables that aff ect leadership effi cacy.

A systematic and thorough understanding of emer -gency management leadership demands that we examine

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Th e goal of the Symposium is to bring researchers and practitioners together to seek out and build common frameworks for discussion. We hope to provide a meeting ground for dialogical discourse among diverse approaches to leadership theory and practice, with an eye to developing models for implementation.

—Th e Editors

LEADERSHIP IN CRISES, DISASTERS, AND

CATASTROPHES

JOSEPH E. TRAINOR AND LUCIA VELOTTI

JOURNAL OF LEADERSHIP STUDIES, Volume 7, Number 3, 2013©2013 University of PhoenixView this article online at wileyonlinelibrary.com • DOI:10.1002/jls.2129538

the role and activities of leaders and leadership in the context of previous leadership and disaster management studies (e.g., Boin, Hart, Stern, & Sundelius, 2005; Kapucu & Van Wart, 2008; Patton, 2007; Rubin, 1985), but the broad and increasingly important range of topics in disaster management implies we need to dig further. For example, leadership needs to be understood across all phases of comprehensive emergency management (i.e., mitigation, preparedness, response, recovery). Further, we need to build our often neglected dimensions of leadership such as fl exibility, communication and networking abilities, decision making, urgency, teambuilding, sensemaking, information seeking, accounting, learning, and planning among others (Boin et al., 2005).

Major catastrophic events such as 9/11, Hurricanes Katrina and Sandy, and the tornado outbreaks in 2011 often draw attention to the actions of governmental actors. However, if one looks more closely, government is only one place where leaders emerge. Decades of research have shown that disaster response is the result of large networks of often-disparate public, private, and

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Stern continues on a similar issue, providing an in-depth discussion of the tasks necessary to prepare for crisis. According to Stern , preparing is made up of four subtasks: (a) organizing and selecting, (b) planning, (c) educating and training, and (d) cultivating vigilance and protecting preparedness. Stern concludes his discussion by addressing leaders’ responsibilities for ending crises. He claims that a leader’s responsibilities are twofold. First, leaders should ensure that learning from previous experiences and organizational adjustments are part of the ending of a crisis (Boin et al., 2005); and second, leaders should make sure “that the entities they lead are prepared to rise to future challenges.”

Th e articles by Morrison and Kielkowski both address leadership eff ectiveness in the private sector. Morrison highlights how the chief executive offi cer’s (CEO’s) often aloof modus operandi in addressing business continuity has an impact on the employees’ perception of lack of preparedness. He advocates a holistic approach to crisis in which CEOs engage members of their organizations as well as external parties to get everyone collectively to act as one in the case of a crisis. According to Morrison, the adoption of a collective thought process and the building of new internal and external relationships will benefi t leaders so that they can make better informed decisions and will benefi t employees, their families, and fi rst responders.

Kielkowski provides an example of private sector best practice on eff ective crisis leadership. Th e author contributes by addressing eff ective crisis leadership as a process resulting from a leader’s continuous eff orts to engage all the members of the organization through eff ective communication and practice. Th e author concludes by stating that learning from crisis is important even though there should always be awareness that the next crisis will be diff erent from the previous one. In sum, eff ective crisis leadership “starts well in advance of an event. It is the result of leadership in planning, awareness, and response.”

Finally, Buschlen and Goff nett turn attention to the task of creating new leaders. Th e authors refl ect on and describe the importance of higher education in learning about leadership and logistics for disaster relief. Th ey discuss how to develop experiential skill for disaster relief and how to assess disaster relief learning.

nonprofi t organizations. Th ere can literally be thousands of nonprofi t entities involved in disaster responses providing key and critical resources, including leadership (Dynes, Quarantelli, & Wenger, 1990; Kapucu & Van Wart, 2008; Simo & Bies, 2007). Consequently, it is important to look at how such entities approach disaster leadership. Additionally, despite little formal literature on private sector responses (Tierney, Lindell, & Perry, 2001), there is an increasing awareness of how important it is that emergency management consider how private sector actions can improve disaster outcomes.

Given these insights, the symposium considers the role of leadership across the spectrum and aims to expand the debate by focusing on insights from both academic scholarship and “boots-on-the-ground” experience. Because knowledge about disaster leadership is not exclusive to the academy or to practice, we recruited authors who could provide both sets of insights. By including more voices in the dialogue from more positions in society, we can improve our understanding of leadership in this context. Yet considering the relatively sparse literature focused on disaster leadership, authors were simply asked to provide an analysis or refl ection on some dimension of disaster leadership that they felt was important. Th e authors have provided an interesting set of articles that meet that challenge, and the symposium takes on a number of these important issues.

Boin and Renaud start the symposium with a discussion of the process of sensemaking and meaning-making (crisis communication) in the aftermath of a crisis, highlighting how strategic and operational leaders on the basis of diff erent cognitive needs make diff erent assessments of the situation, thus generating what they term an “appreciative gap.” Th e authors suggest that the accomplishment of a joint picture of the situation requires both operational and strategic leaders to be aware of each other’s cognitive needs and tasks. Following on the notion that a leader’s perception (and consequent actions) matter, Canton asks whether diff erent leadership styles are required of emergency managers during planning and disaster operations. Th e author suggests that persuasive rather than directive leadership is the key style of leadership emergency managers need for both types of operations.

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Th e authors conclude by suggesting further areas to be explored in order to advance the training of future disaster-based leaders and better defi ne the role of higher education in disaster relief.

Even though the symposium has provided some great insights and additional dialogue on leadership in disaster, there are still many unanswered questions. For instance: Are disasters fundamentally diff erent context for leaders? How do we balance management and leadership? What role do diff erent structures play in facilitating leadership? How does leadership change throughout the emergency management cycle? To what degree do the events themselves rather than our interventions in those events dictate our assessments of these outcomes? Th ese are among the many questions in need of further exploration. It is our hope that readers of the symposium will not only learn from these authors’ insights, but will also take up the call to explore the complexities of leadership in crises, disasters, and catastrophes.

References

Boin, A., Hart, P., Stern, E., & Sundelius, B. (2005). Th e politics of crisis management: Public leadership under Pressure. New York, NY: Cambridge.

Demiroz, F., & Kapucu, N. (2012). The role of leadership in managing emergencies and disasters. European Journal of Economic and Political Studies, 5(1), 91–101.

Dynes, R. R., Quarantelli, E. L., & Wenger, D. (1990). Individual and organizational response to the 1985 earthquake in Mexico City, Mexico. Newark: Disaster Research Center, University of Delaware.

Kapucu, N., & Van Wart, M. (2008). Making matters worse: An anatomy of leadership failures in managing catastrophic events. Administration and Society, 40, 711–740.

Littlefield, R. S., & Quenette, A. M. (2007). Crisis leadership and hurricane Katrina: Th e portrayal of authority by the media in natural disasters. Journal of Applied Communications Research, 35(1), 26–47.

Patton, A. (2007). Collaborative emergency management. In W. Waugh, Jr., & K. Tierney (Eds.), Emergency management: Principles and practice for local government (2nd ed.). Washington, DC: ICMA Press.

Rubin, C. B. (1985). The community recovery process in the United States after a major natural disaster. International Journal of Mass Emergencies and Disasters, 3, 9–28.

Simo, G., & Bies, A. (2007). Th e role of nonprofi ts in disaster response: An expanded model of cross-sector collaboration. Public Administration Review, 67, 125–142.

Tierney, K. J., Lindell, M. K., & Perry, R. W. (2001). Facing the unexpected: Disaster preparedness and response in the United States. Washington, DC: Joseph Henry Press.

Waugh, W. L., & Streib, G. (2006). Collaboration and leadership for eff ective emergency management. Public A dministration Review, 66(s1), 131–140.

Joseph E. Trainor, PhD, is an assistant professor in the School of Public Policy and Administration at the University of Delaware and a core faculty member at the Disaster Research Center. Trainor’s research focuses on human behavior and organizational activities associated with crises, disasters, and catastrophes. In particular, he focuses on understanding the basic science of human behavior during these events as well as their implications for policy and planning. Trainor is also interested in international and comparative emergency management and academic/practitioner integration. He teaches substantive courses in the Disaster Science and Management program as well as the Undergraduate Public Policy Program. He also teaches qualitative research methods to students across the school’s programs.

Lucia Velotti has a PhD in public management and governance from the University of Salerno, Italy. Currently, Dr. Velotti is a PhD student at the School of Public Policy and Administration and a graduate research assistant at the Disaster Research Center, University of Delaware. Dr. Velotti has carried out disaster field work and research both nationally and internationally. Her research interests include collaborative public management and governance, cognitive and behavioral response to crisis, and international disaster response. Currently, Dr. Velotti teaches Sociology of Disaster.