Collaboration is essential for dealing with natural and technological hazards and disasters and the consequences of terrorism. Generally, it is accepted that all administrative agencies require a combination of transactional and transformational leaders, especially within emergency management agencies. However, conflicts arose from creating the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to impose a command and control system on a collaborative organizational culture within a collaborative sociopolitical and legal context. The significant factors are the ability and willingness to appropriately distinguish the needs and priorities of disaster management apart from civil defense needs and preferences; the selection of well-qualified disaster management leaders with a background in natural and accidental disasters; and the quality of implementation of programs including administrative execution, number and level of presidential disaster declarations, and timely presidential involvement in catastrophes. To what extent is crisis management related to emergency management, change management, and transformational leadership? How are these distinctions illustrated at a competency level? While change management is essential, it must be targeted and time-sensitive. Competencies were identified as influential leaders’ important characteristics or behaviors during crises. New leadership strategies that derive their power from adequate strategies practical to the transformational power of a compelling vision rather than from hierarchy, rank, or standard operating procedures are recommended.
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