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Exploring the Leadership Skill and Challenge in Responding Natural Disaster: Lesson Learning from Leaders Involved in Emergency Response of Bangladesh

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Bangladesh is widely known as a land of natural disasters and remains classified as one the most vulnerable countries in the world. Over the last thirty years, Bangladesh has experienced nearly 200 natural disasters accounted for damage of asset, property and, livelihoods and over thousands of death toll. In this connection, effective leadership is critical in order to make disaster response system operative in an effective and efficient manner. This study explores the disaster leadership with a view of identifying the essential leadership skills that are needed by leaders to effectively respond in the aftermath of disaster. It also intends to explore challenges that these leaders face, with a view of improving disaster response leadership. This study revealed that some key essential leadership skills such as intuitiveness, decisiveness, communication, networking, accountability, and learning are required to respond disasters effectively. Findings from this study provided not only an overview of leadership skills needed to face challenges, but also the challenges that these leaders face, with a view of equating the challenges with appropriate skill needed to respond in the context of Bangladesh.
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Management of Sustainable Development Sibiu, Romania, Volume 9, No.2, December 2017
DOI 10.1515/msd-2017-0019
EXPLORING THE LEADERSHIP SKILL AND CHALLENGE IN RESPONDING
NATURAL DISASTER: LESSON LEARNING FROM LEADERS INVOLVED IN
EMERGENCY RESPONSE OF BANGLADESH
Khalid Md., Bahauddin1 and Nayma, Iftakhar2
1Integrated Research on Disaster Risk (IRDR), China
2KDI School of Public Policy and Management, South Korea
ABSTRACT: Bangladesh is widely known as a land of natural disasters and remains classified as one the most vulnerable countries
in the world. Over the last thirty years, Bangladesh has experienced nearly 200 natural disasters accounted for damage of asset,
property and, livelihoods and over thousands of death toll. In this connection, effective leadership is critical in order to make disaster
response system operative in an effective and efficient manner. This study explores the disaster leadership with a view of identifying
the essential leadership skills that are needed by leaders to effectively respond in the aftermath of disaster. It also intends to explore
challenges that these leaders face, with a view of improving disaster response leadership. This study revealed that some key essential
leadership skills such as intuitiveness, decisiveness, communication, networking, accountability, and learning are required to
respond disasters effectively. Findings from this study provided not only an overview of leadership skills needed to face challenges,
but also the challenges that these leaders face, with a view of equating the challenges with appropriate skill needed to respond in the
context of Bangladesh.
Keywords: Disaster, Response, Leadership Skill, Experience, Challenges
1. INTRODUCTION
Bangladesh has ranked 5th among the top countries at risk of
disaster, according to UN affiliated World Risk Report 2016.
The index assessed the risk of disaster in 171 countries through
the combined analysis of natural hazards and societal
vulnerabilities (Akter, S., Mallick, B., 2016). Bangladesh is
extremely vulnerable to natural disaster because of its unique
geographic location, high population density and widespread
poverty. According to World Bank, in the past two decades,
60% of the global deaths caused by cyclones were in
Bangladesh (Tasneem, S. & Shindaini, A.J.M., 2013). Over the
last four decades, it has been experienced by seven of the ten
20th century’s deadliest cyclones. In addition to cyclone, the
country is frequently and harshly affected by a large number of
natural disasters such as floods, tidal surges, tornadoes,
landslides and river erosion (Karim, A., & Noy, I., 2015).
Bangladesh experienced over 200 natural disasters since 1980,
leaving a total death toll of approximately 200,000 people and
causing economic loss worth nearly $17 billion. Every year,
Bangladesh incurred 1.8 percent of GDP loss due to natural
disasters. It is estimated that 14 percent of Bangladesh’s GDP
is exposed to disasters (Asgary, A., and Halim, A., 2011). In
order to make disaster response system operative in an
effective and efficient manner, effective leadership is very
essential. The importance of leadership in emergency
management is widely acknowledged (Hannah, S. T. et al,
2009). While responding emergencies, leaders are judged from
their actions and in actions. Leaders are expected to take
charge of the situation, mitigate the effects of the disaster,
while being decisive in the midst of anxiety, confusion and
chaos. Leaders are expected to be vision oriented, guide the
public to safety, while reducing the risks, and navigate through
to the murky fields, to that of normalcy (Anderson, D., 2002).
So far study on leadership skills in disaster response stage, has
not been explored in detail in the context of Bangladesh. So
this study is important by exploring the skills of leaders
required in responding disasters and documents the experience
and challenges the leaders that they faced during disaster
response in Bangladesh.
2. METHODOLOGY OF THE STUDY:
This work is qualitative in nature and 40 persons (male- 20 and
female- 20) who are working in the disaster management
sectors in different NGOs and Governmental organization have
been selected purposively to know and explore leadership skill,
experience, perception and challenges about disaster response
activities in Bangladesh. Noted that these 50 studied people
participated in different natural disaster response activities such
as Cyclone Sidr, 2007; Cyclone Aila, 2009 and Cyclone
Roanu, 2016 where they played vital leadership role. They
were selected by their organizations to participate in these
emergency response activities. Data of this study were
collected through group discussions (5), key informant
interviews (5) and in-depth Individual interviews (40).
3. DISASTER AND LEADERSHIP:
Leadership is a highly contested term, meaning different things
to different people. Hailey (2006) defines leadership as ‘… a
process whereby an individual influences a group or
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individuals to achieve a common goal’. Kouzes and Posner
(1995) describe leadership as ‘… the art of mobilising others to
want to struggle for shared aspirations’. Thus, leadership could
be viewed as a process of social influence in which one person
can enlist the aid and support of others in the accomplishment
of a common task. Whilst these two definitions are not
necessarily representative of the numerous and sometimes
competing notions of leadership, they point out at least three
perspectives on leadership. Firstly, some perspectives focus on
the traits of successful leaders such as style and approach
(Stogdill 1950), for example, charisma to deal with, amongst
others, contingencies and challenging situations (Fielder 1967).
Secondly, some focus on transformational leaders with the
ability to inspire followers during both normal and troubled
times, mainly characterised by four Is: idealised influence
(more commonly termed charisma), inspirational motivation,
intellectual stimulation and individualised consideration (Bass
1985; De Bussy & Paterson 2012; Yunus & Anuar 2012).
Thirdly, some go beyond perspectives on the traits of leaders
and transformational leadership, which essentially focus on the
person of the leader. Horner (1997) views leadership as a
process in which a leader is not seen as an individual in charge
of followers. Rather, a leader is seen as member of a
community of practice where people are united in a common
enterprise and share a history, values, beliefs, ways of talking
and ways of doing things (Drath & Palus 1994). The leader in
these circumstances is akin to what Zolli and Healy (2012) call
the ‘translational leader’ who is not rooted solely in their
formal status but in their informal authority and cultural
standing. Thus, the leadership imperative is centred on
influence, facilitation, collective empowerment, networking
and coordination, not command and control (Zolli & Healy
2012).
The leadership style in disaster management focused on
command and control has a long history that is rooted in the
military model of emergency preparedness and response.
According to Dynes (1994), the assumption of the command-
and-control model should be understood in terms of the three
Cs. The first ‘C’ assumes that disasters are characterised by
‘chaos’, and the other two ‘Cs’ suggest that the chaos can be
eliminated by command and control. The command-and-
control formulation, including its mutations such as Incident
Management Systems (Perry 2003) and Unified Command
Incident Systems (Buck, Trainor & Aguirre 2006), heavily
draws from World War II and the Cold-War era. It recognises
the capacity of military organisations to deal with disasters, a
view which has been deeply embedded in disaster-management
and civil-protection organisations (Dynes 1994). However,
Carvalho (2015) states that the wide-ranging systemic
breakdowns, interdependencies and the uneven effects of
catastrophes indicate that current practices of command-and-
control leadership are insufficient to the challenges of ‘hyper-
complex’ events. Instead, Carvalho (2015) makes the following
claim:
Transformative leadership that encourages a sense of
empowerment, ownership and engagement within the
community is required, incorporating a relational approach that
constitutes a nexus between leader and follower, with both
sides exercising agency. (p. 82)
In the current study, leadership is viewed as a relational and
distributed activity. This view of leadership is consistent with
the governance approach to DRR. We posit that leadership is
one of the essential elements of DRR governance at global,
regional, national and local level. The DRR ‘platforms’ require
leadership in order for the stakeholders, comprising United
Nations (UN) agencies, government ministries, departments,
civil-society groups, donors, International Non-Governmental
Organisations (INGOs) and community organisations to share
DRR ideas, experiences, expertise, case material and views.
Analysing DRR leadership can be problematic as it requires a
framework which captures relational, transformational,
translational and distributed leadership, which may also
assimilate relevantly to DRR governance. Kirk and Shutte’s
(2004) framework is adapted to analyse DRR leadership as it
captures the basic components of relational, transformational,
translational and distributed leadership. The framework has
three components of community leadership, which are
dialogue, connective leadership and collective empowerment.
Dialogue or collective thinking helps communities and their
leaders create a climate that can lead to greater collaboration,
fluidity, collective and inclusive learning, and sustainability
(Kirk & Shutte 2004) of DRR activities. Kirk and Shutte
(2004) further contend that dialogue can lead to agreements
even if community members may not agree to the direction to
be followed. They further state the conditions under which
dialogue can yield positive results. In the context of DRR,
community members should feel good enough, safe enough
and the environment should be open enough to identify and
map hazards, express their vulnerability and capacity, and deal
with uncertainties and difficulties in order to construct
appropriate responses to the realities obtaining in their
community. In this way, DRR leadership could be viewed as a
collective distributed phenomenon that is constructed around
dialogue as a means to enhancing resilience to disasters.
Connective leadership also integrates the gendered notions of
leadership (Kirk & Shuttle 2004). Kirk and Shutte (2004)
further state three concerns of connective leadership. Firstly, it
helps individuals integrate their desires with community or
organisational goals. In the context of DRR, an individual
identifies DRR goals, takes ownership of the goals and chooses
actions to achieve the goals. Secondly, connective leadership
encourages members to collectively explore the possibilities
and potential of connecting with a common goal. In relation to
DRR, this might include team work before and after a disaster,
particularly in community projects. Finally, connective
leadership helps create and sustain a creative space where
collective leadership can flourish. The DRR leadership will
foster collaboration and enable different voices to be heard,
including those of vulnerable groups such as children, women
and the elderly and disabled persons. The leadership will not
necessarily come from just one direction but from multiple
directions.
Kirk and Shutte (2004) also state that collective empowerment
helps individuals to find their place, their role, their identity
and their voice in the system. As individuals become
interconnected in all parts of the system and have a clear
conception of their roles, they develop fruitful relationships
with others, clarity about purpose, meaning and value in their
work. Consequently, individuals then take responsibility for
themselves in relationship to others, their work, the system
they are in and the larger environment that contains their
system. Kirk and Shutte’s (2004) framework promotes
partnership between individuals and groups who essentially
need to work together to build resilient communities where the
values of empowerment, inclusivity, accountability,
collaboration and transparency are paramount.
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4. DISCUSSION OF THE FINDINGS:
Based on interviews of all respondents, they said that in the
initial stages of disaster response, affected people are always
concerned, whether the leader, understood and interpreted the
scope of the disaster correctly and how will they be led out of
it. This calls for a leader who has insightful skill that give them
the rich and profound understanding of the complex challenges
that they are about to face and deal with. In addition, most of
the respondents noted that leaders should have skill to
effectively respond in the aftermath of a disaster. It is the
necessary competencies that a leader needs to have to be able
to accomplish the task of leading a disaster response phase
effectively. Leaders must have skill of insight are able to
overcome the challenges by taking responsibility for building a
common understanding, motivation, inspiration, trust and hope
for victims and all the populations that were affected by the
disaster.
Most of the studied people agreed that building a common
understanding in this case, must be started with the leaders
delineating the scope of the disaster to all stakeholders, giving
details of what has emerged in the disaster based on an
informed knowledge, sources and experience. This is seen as
an important first step in creating awareness to the public and
taking of control of the response phase by the leader.
This study revealed that the ability of a leader, who runs a
disaster response, to agree with the onset of a disaster,
understanding the causes or vulnerabilities, challenges and
opportunities, is essential for an effective response. It is by
examining and interpreting the scope of the disaster, in the first
case for themselves and then for the victims. In addition, all
respondents said that constructing an understanding of the
prevailing situation and taking control of the disaster response
phase is a key first step for leaders in effectively managing
disaster response. Leaders must be insightful in responding to
disasters are able to actively evaluate the response capacity that
needs to be deployed in terms of resources. Nevertheless, this
can be an intimidating challenge.
All the interviewed people thought that in the event of a
disaster, the challenge for leaders and those on the disaster
response team is the ability to have a mutual understanding and
apprehending of the scope, magnitude, characteristics and
consequences of the disaster. This has been proven to be a
hurdle for leaders who respond to disasters.
It is found from the study that decision making in responding
disaster is crucial, complicated, sensible and competent that
affects the lives of many in disaster response phase, relying
only on limited information and quick evaluation, as the core
of disaster response leadership and the benchmark by which
leaders actions are to be judged. Most of the respondents noted
that the leaders must have a responsibility to make decisions on
all aspects and benchmarks of the response phase, it is on
behalf of victims who are in distress and do not have the power
to decide for themselves. In addition, they noted that leaders
must be able to prioritize their decision-making process based
on needs and resources and be able to focus on their
consequences. Leaders who respond to disasters must be able
to make decisions about the deployment and management of
the response plan because the response phase is confusing and
interrupted and requires urgent and quick actions to save lives
and property.
On the other hand, some respondents argued that not only
decision making, quality decision making is a major challenge
while responding to disaster. Those responsible for disaster
response have a responsibility to make quality decisions and to
be able to respect them, as they define the future of all the
actors involved in the whole operation. All respondents noted
that in order to achieve an effective and successful response,
leaders need to be flexible in adapting to changing events and
making changes in their decision for the benefit of all
stakeholders and processes.
It found from the study that responding to disasters requires
adequate networking and collaboration that are essential to
generate the resources needed to respond. When leaders
respond to disasters, they interact with different teams,
authorities and organizations with which they have never
worked before. These organizations or units usually have
different roles and systems of operations. Therefore, leaders
must have networking skills to overcome this barrier. Leaders
with networking skills must use their personal influence and
dynamism to involve all stakeholders and authorities at the
local community level, involving the first responding
organizations such as police, ambulances and the national and
international arena.
It revealed that leaders must use the networking skills to build
respect, trust and relationships at all levels of response to local
and national disasters. This is essential for the establishment of
a working platform that will reduce conflict and create a
conflict resolution mechanism that can promote collaboration
and networking. All people of this study believe that leaders
must use the effective networking skills foe adapting quickly
against the changing environment. They can do this by building
teams and bridges, entrusting operations and powers to others,
instead of centralizing command and decision-making. The
technology has been used by disaster-makers to facilitate the
networking process, including telecommunication networks,
Internet interfaces and others. All the respondents strongly
believed that the success of disaster leadership is directly
related to the interactions and partnerships they create and
sustain throughout the process. These networks are essential to
develop a common approach in dealing with challenges in the
response phase.
Most of the studied people thought that leaders mush have
effective communication skills, have the ability to be open,
they must able to listen from all sides and are able to learn
from the challenges encountered. They must be willing to share
information without discrimination and to express their views
without fear. The prime challenge for leaders in the response
phase is the communication failure or overload. Leaders who
respond to disasters have the challenge of verifying
information in the dynamic and evolving context that they
operate around. Leaders must therefore have critical
communication skills that involve active listening and
comprehending that they gasp the scope of information relayed
and are able to relay it efficiently and relevantly.
All respondents said that effective leaders with good
communication skills must develop modalities to increase
information sharing through appropriate communication by
taking advantage of the various communication technologies
and channels available to remove barriers. Thus, leaders having
good communication skills should strive to achieve the
effective means available when the communication systems in
the disaster response plan fail to work. The studied people
noted that an effective contingency plan must always anticipate
failures in communication systems that may hamper response
efforts. Disaster preparedness plans should be able to clearly
indicate how the challenges associated with communication
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disasters will be addressed.
It is noted from this study that leaders must accountable during
responding time; leaders must be accountable for how they
exercise their power to make decisions and relocate resources.
A leader must be accountable to build trust and respect with all
the stakeholders involved. It is seen in many quarters as being
able to show that a leader recognizes his moral and legal
obligations, but this is not always the case.
It noted from this study that accountable leaders are able to
employ means and systems that will enhance transparency in
relief and rescue activities, ensuring that all resources are
appropriately used and accounted for effective leadership.
Systems should therefore be put in place to obtain feedback
from the affected populations and the modalities for resolving
the conflicts amicably, made operational.
All the studied people noted that leaders must have keen
interest to learn are able to recognize their mistakes and learn
from them and accumulate experience to ensure that the
disaster response phase continues to develop on the basis of
best practices and better policies and approaches. It is
important to note, however, that no two type of disaster can
have similar experiences, but there are generally lessons to be
learned and shared among the leaders. All respondents of this
study believed that an effective leader in disaster response is
one who learns to take a keen interest in the loopholes created
by factors such as policy and regulations, cultures and systems
that have greater bearing to the activities and function of rescue
and relief efforts. These leaders are ready to challenge the
status quo and initiate the change processes needed in the
rescue and relief field.
5. CONCLUSION:
This study demonstrated the importance of leadership
competence, for leaders who respond to the disasters. The
success of the disaster response phase is largely linked to the
fact that leaders have the right skills and put them into practice
when necessary. However, as the dynamics of disaster
leadership continues to change, emphasis will shift from
leadership skills to organizational structures and cultures that
affects to a greater extent, the bearing and quality of leadership
performance in disaster response phase. The findings of this
study should be considered by policy makers and relevant
stakeholders of Bangladesh so that relevant training on
leadership on disaster management would be provided to
respective people for ensuring effective and efficient response
as Bangladesh is one of the most vulnerable countries due to
disasters. This study also explores gaps in disaster-leadership
research and scholarship, which apparently has been implied
under the disaster management and governance rubric. Finally,
whilst the findings of this study may be specific to the
Bangladesh context, they may resonate with similar contexts
elsewhere.
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