The existing leadership has limitations to cope with emerging risks effectively, especially in a double-risk society. It is necessary, therefore, to have a new leadership that can be applied in various disaster situations. This study covers two majo...
The existing leadership has limitations to cope with emerging risks effectively, especially in a double-risk society. It is necessary, therefore, to have a new leadership that can be applied in various disaster situations. This study covers two major topics or questions on disaster management leadership: are there distinctive characteristics of leadership in the national-level disaster management system and does leadership differ or change with disaster management phases?
In this study disaster management leadership is defined as techniques that influence achieving specific objectives such as protecting people’s lives and properties efficiently and enable to operate in intended direction diversely-connected members of the national disaster management system and individuals or groups who are the subject and object of the disaster management. After analyzing characteristics and styles of leadership in each disaster management phase, this study searches a new leadership style for the national-level disaster management.
Two methodologies are adopted in this study. Firstly, available literatures covering theses and various data are surveyed and compiled to establish an analysis framework reviewing theoretical disaster-management leadership styles. Secondly, questionnaires are prepared to find how the styles and characteristics of disaster management leadership affect the effectiveness of an organization. Representative groups such as the National Emergency Management Agency, local governments and related authorities, fire departments, related NGOs, and disaster experts are selected and included for the questionnaire survey.
Based on the analysis of actual data, four leadership styles are identified: autocratic or authoritarian, participative or democratic, persuasive, and delegating or Laissez-Faire leadership. To prove the hypothesis that leadership styles and characteristics, organizational solidarity, and responders’characteristics may affect organizational effectiveness differently, leadership styles and organizational effectiveness in various disaster phases are analyzed. Based on the analysis four main conclusions are found. Firstly, in disaster mitigation phase, persuasive, participative, and autocratic leadership affect organizational effectiveness. Among leadership characteristics, human characteristics affect organizational effectiveness dominantly, and also organizational solidarity and responders’ characteristics affect organizational effectiveness. Secondly, in disaster preparedness phase, persuasive and delegating leadership as well as leadership characteristics of individual ability and organizational solidarity affect organizational effectiveness. Thirdly, in response phase, persuasive leadership and human characteristics among leadership characteristics are found to affect organizational effectiveness. Among organizational solidarity and individual characteristics, duration of employment affects organizational effectiveness. Fourthly, in recovery phase, autocratic leadership and human characteristics among leadership characteristics affect organizational effectiveness. Also, organizational solidarity and duration of employment are found to affect organizational effectiveness.
Proving the hypothesis that leadership style may affect organizational effectiveness, persuasive leadership is found to have a positive impact on duty faithfulness. Secondly, persuasive leadership also has a positive impact on encouraging organization members to display their abilities. Thirdly, in terms of cooperative relations among organization members, persuasive and participative leadership affect positively. Fourthly, in terms of mission achievement, persuasive and participative leadership also act positively. Fifthly, persuasive, participative, and delegating leadership are found to have a positive impact on the degree of satisfaction with the result of organization activities. Consequently, it can be concluded that disaster managers prefer persuasive, participative, and delegating leadership rather than old-fashioned autocratic leadership.
This pioneering study is meaningful since it is performed when previous researches on disaster management leadership are not abundant. In a political sense, it is more meaningful that the results in this study can be used in positive ways for the future leadership in the national disaster management system. For future leadership, it is recommended that, firstly, disaster management organization needs to be improved in the direction that leaders are encouraged to demonstrate their real abilities to enhance coordination function not only for the efficiency in the field response activities but also for the mobilization of various national resources. Secondly, because of uncertainty of disaster occurrence, it is desired that disaster management leaders should continuously observe disaster-related environment such as possible disaster size, extent, and period, establish a system in advance, and mobilize the system for rapid and systematic responses. Thirdly, it is necessary to acknowledge leader’s discretion sufficiently so that he or she can respond proactively to emergencies. Fourthly, leadership needs to be developed or improved, forming a network, to work together with other related central organizations, local governments, and NGOs, since one single disaster management organization is not enough to respond to complex and emerging disasters. Fifthly, as found in this study, different leadership styles are required for different disaster management phases, i.e., mitigation, preparedness, response, and recovery. For mitigation and preparedness phases leaders need to show participative or delegating leadership to direct employees to participate. For response and recovery phases leaders need to show autocratic or persuasive leadership for an effective emergency management.
This study suggests how to improve disaster management leadership in the central government level focusing on the disaster management organization and legislative system. For more effective responses to disasters, however, it is necessary to strengthen local response capacity rather than central management system. Therefore, future research on disaster management leadership needs to focus on leadership appropriate for leading cooperation between public and private sectors and suitable for community-based disaster management system.