College and University Disaster Management: The Impact of Leader Behavior on Response and Recovery from Disaster.

Abstract

The word disaster evokes vivid and painful memories for most U.S. citizens. While for many the word brings to mind images of September 11th, for others it might trigger memories of a major earthquake, oil spill, or even recollections of a localized tornado or mass-shooting. Regardless of the type of disaster, and the differing memories each may evoke, citizens of the United States inevitably revert back to one central question: “Why weren’t we better prepared?” In response, scholars have increasingly begun to explore the area of disaster management. Several such examinations have focused on the role that leaders can and do play in fostering (and/or inhibiting) the preparedness, response, and recovery efforts of disaster-afflicted organizations and communities. Unfortunately, however, to date, the research community has largely neglected the subject of disaster management in the context of some of our largest and most cherished institutions – our colleges and universities (Stein, Vickio, Fogo & Abraham, 2007). Nor have scholars proposed a broad, interdisciplinary, conceptual framework for college and university leader behavior in the midst of disaster. Thus, the study that follows seeks to fill this void by proposing a holistic conceptual framework for leader behavior in a disaster management context and utilizing this framework to examine (via a comparative case study) the behavior of college and university leaders at three institutions, as they responded to and sought to facilitate recovery from a catastrophic disaster – Hurricane Katrina.