Leadership is one of the core issues in emergency management. Leadership is all the more important during crisis situations (Boin et al. 2016) because the leader is more visible to the public and under pressure to perform effectively because lives and property may be at stake. Leadership is also more difficult in an environment in which authority is shared, resources are dispersed, expertise is scattered among other agencies and levels of government, and institutional capabilities are uneven. The first question that is asked during a disaster is “Who is in charge” and no one may be in charge.
Within some emergency management systems, symbolic leadership is also very important. The costs of failure can be dire for political leaders. The leader of the emergency management organization represents the political leaders. There are expectations that the head of government will make an appearance to demonstrate his or her concern for the safety of people at risk and support for the crisis...
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Waugh, W.L. (2016). Leadership and Emergency Management. In: Farazmand, A. (eds) Global Encyclopedia of Public Administration, Public Policy, and Governance. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-31816-5_2387-1
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-31816-5_2387-1
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