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Running head: LEADERSHIP ISSUES IN DISASTER MANAGEMENT
LEADERSHIP ISSUES IN DISASTER MANAGEMENT 7
Leadership Issues in Disaster Management
Quintin Strawder
PA 524 – Leadership Issues with Critical Incidents Research #2
February 2022
Leaders are expected to lead by example and take up leadership roles especially when it comes to dealing with some crisis or incidences. Leaders always face challenges when doing their assignments and among them is the lack of cooperation from the colleagues and the subordinates hence leaders might be seen as incompetent. Since a leader is always in charge of a team, he or she is likely to be the leading figure in the team and responsible for the team performance ("Security issues," 2004). Managing a team is completely a hard task since different minds are likely to pull in a different direction and there is also a chance that there will be organizational or institutional conflict. Team members are known to have varied beliefs and values and hence may negatively affect the team performance the efforts of the leader.
Another form of the issue leaders may face when dealing with a major incident is the attempt to affect the changes since he is a leader. In most cases, changes are not readily accepted by the team members since they are never sure about their job security or the new roles they might play in the future after the changes (Saharan, 2015). Members of the organization or the team members attempt to frustrate the leader and render him incapacitated in attempting to effect the changes. Most of the people in an organization or a team prefer to remain static and negatively respond to changes and this is the reason that the organizations will stay in the same position for long without a significant change. It is also challenging assignments to change others and make them stick to or adopt the leader's ideologies. It is difficult to have other people developing or being developed since (Saharan, 2015). The leader must always be an inspirational figure and when there are crises and incidences they are looked at or upon for motivation and inspiration. at the time a leader might be learned and have the best leadership skills but unable to inspire others. For an assignment or a piece of work to be complete, there is a dire need for the leader to motivate and inspire others to make the work complete or be accomplished in the right manner and at the right speed. Imposter syndrome is also a normal and usual thing that is faced by most leaders when attempting to deal with significant or major issues (Saharan, 2015). Imposters syndrome is a common phenomenon, and it is a hectic assignment by the elder or deal with it. Another challenge or issue is dealing with the handling of different and varied perspectives ("Security issues," 2004). A good leader must always be capable of doing the best he or she can and try the very best to deal with the issues as they come. It is also good to conduct prior research on the possible issue that might arise and solve them via case studies or experience. Creativity and innovations can also be good tools to deal with the issue and the matters arising especially when doing a significant or a major assignment.
The main role of a leader is to identify and mitigate the risks that might arise or might make the organization unable to accomplish the objectives they have as part of their missions and vision. Failure to mitigate the risks can be a dangerous sign and the organization might fall or shut down (Casper, 2011). It is a role of a leader to come up with an approved framework and a well-researched sketch on how to mitigate the risks. The primary issue faced by a leader pertaining the risk mitigation is the lack of enough knowledge, skills, and experience to deal with the issues that are likely to arise. This is a challenge since the intruders into a system are known to use sophisticated and hi-tech gadgets to crack into a system or device and since they are normally creative it poses a great challenge to a leader. The leaders with good experience and the right skills are hard to find and expensive to hire and most organizations will avoid such leaders to save on the cost of operation. Preparedness if a possible risk is also a role to be played by the leader. The organization under the right leader must always be prepared since the risk are unpredictable and can arise at any given time. Preparedness depends on the leadership competence in that a leader must be willing to involve others, delegate the duties and ensure the right and proper framework is in place to be referred to when there is a need to (Casper, 2011).To be fully prepared and put the organization in the right position in preparedness, is a costly undertaking since a leader must have done good research and recruited the experts in the field to ensure that the organization is fully prepared and in the right position. A leader faces a stiff and a big challenge when it comes to preparedness since the attackers usually come with new methods and techniques to intrude into a system.
Preparedness as a role to be played by or is assumed by the organizational leader is quite a big task and it never reached the end since there is a need to be updated on the new techniques that are in use and always updating the system and the devices to the very newer versions to avoid a possible easy intrusion and attacks ("Security issues," 2004). Most organizations are led by data and information that must be kept with the highest levels of secret and privacy. The information in any organization must be handled following the principles of information which is nick-named the CIA triad. The information must be handled with high levels of confidentiality, integrity, and availability (Monica, 2019). The preparedness framework must be stored as required by the law and the regulations governing information. When such information land into the wrong hands and possibly the attackers, they will know how prepared the organization is ns intrusion can be much easier, and hence the leader can be considered incompetent. A leader must be willing to delegate duties to the juniors and the subordinates. It is challenging to leave or delegate the duties to a most trusted lieutenant especially when the leader does not have the good leadership skills where delegation is part of it or the juniors have not proven capable of handling duties in the absence of the leader ("Disaster planning and recovery," 2012). The people who might have the duties delegated to may be incompetent and may put the organization at the risk of being attacked or the risk of the leader not attaining the right results. This issue must be dealt with by employing the right propel and so training them for the leadership positions.
Leaders are again challenged when it comes to preparedness as it is difficult to be fully equipped and fully prepared to deal with the uncertainties. A competent leader must prepare in advance the way to recover, proper information storage, and the right location to have the information or data stored. It is challenging to have the best back our plans available since they're costly and the backup plans available cannot be fully trusted ("Disaster planning and recovery," 2012). Data is normally safe when kept or stored in clouds, but the clouds can also be attacked or intruded on. It is a good backup plan since copies of the original data can be stored in clouds which is easy to retrieve, use or even refer to in the short time possible. Some leaders might opt to have the backup plans away from the company or the organization's premises, but it could also be costly. It is challenging g to coordinate the two centers where data is stored as a backup plan. Another challenge faced by the leader is that the disaster can hit many places at the same time and hence may render the backup plan used to be useless.
Leaders are required to prepare in advance in the way to mitigate the risks like having backup generators in the case of a power blackout. An instant power outrage which in most cases comes unannounced may lead to the loss of essential data that was not saved or was not backed up ("Disaster planning and recovery," 2012). To prepare a leader must procure a generator that should be automated in case of power loss the generator takes over and the assignment resumed. The premises must be surrounded by a strong perimeter that can withstand waves.
Disasters are normally unwanted and put the organization on the verge of collapsing or rendering them incapable of operating for some time. Whenever an incident hit, it is good to try to recover and the incidents that are of much bigger magnitude are difficult to recover from since the damages are big. A leader faces a big challenge when it comes to the recovery process since it is an expensive undertaking. It is difficult to recover the lost, misplaced, or destroyed sets of data that must be privately handled when the incident or a disaster hit. Some experts must be hired to be able to facilitate the recovery process ("Disaster planning and recovery," 2012). Those experts are expensive and cannot fully be trusted since they can steal essential and crucial sets of data for their good and not for the company or the organization's interest. The recovery process under the right leadership must be swift and must take the shortest time possible to enable the company or the organization to fully return to operation .it is challenging for leaders to put money aside for emergencies like attempting to recover, preparedness, and training the employees on how to act when the disaster or an incident hit.
The leaders might be effective but unable to deal with the disasters and the recovery process for the lack of funding. Funding usually requires prior budgeting and must undergo a substantial approval process by those involved (Monica, 2019). This process despite being tedious wastes a lot of time and may cripple the leader in efforts to deal with the challenges and the issues that normally arise. Since the attempt to have a supplementary budget or emergency kitty be put aside, to counter this challenge a leader, must try to advocate for the importance of such a budget or kitty to deal with the uncertainties in the short time before the challenge escalated. The leader also finds it challenging to establish or form IRT and the CIRT teams to deal with the issues when they arise or when noticed.
References
Casper, N. (2011). Organizational leadership's impact on emergent behavior during disaster response and recovery operations.
Disaster planning and recovery. (2012). Technical Documentation and Process. https://doi.org/10.1201/b13006-8
Monica, H. (2019). What challenges does existentialism bring to leadership? An Existential Approach to Leadership Challenges, 25-39. https://doi.org/10.4324/9780429286414-5
Saharan, V. (2015). Disaster management and corruption: Issues, interventions, and strategies. Strategic Disaster Risk Management in Asia, 193-206. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-81-322-2373-3_13
Security issues. (2004). Disaster Prevention and Management: An International Journal, 13(1). https://doi.org/10.1108/dpm.2004.07313aae.004