Essay Example on Leadership Challenges for Response Leader: Preparing for Next Pandemic

Leadership Challenges That I Would Face as Response Leader, American Red Cross, in Assuring the System Changes Necessary to be Prepared for the Next Pandemic

To determine the leadership challenges that I will face as a response leader in assuring the system changes necessary to be prepared for the next pandemic, it is necessary to understand the roles of response leader. The primary role of a response leader is to oversee first-line disaster response services (The International Federation of Red Cross, 2019). This can be achieved through proper coordination of available in-kind, financial, and human resources for the benefit of the donors as well as the beneficiaries (The International Federation of Red Cross, 2019).

Is your time best spent reading someone else’s essay? Get a 100% original essay FROM A CERTIFIED WRITER!

Save 25%

One of the challenges that I might face in preparing for the disaster is the collection of information and data related to the impending disaster (Management Association, Information Resources, 2018; Rose, Spitz, Schein, Burlingame, & Muskin, 2018). For instance, I will be required to understand the scale of the disaster; especially the number of individuals that are likely to be affected by the disaster. Apart from knowing the scale of the disaster, getting accurate and up-to-date information on the potentially devastating effects is necessary for effective and timely response to the impending disaster (United Nations Office for Outer Space Affairs, 2019). This information may prove challenging and time-consuming to gather because it involves visiting various government offices tasked with predicting natural disasters.

Another challenge that might also arise is ensuring that there are adequate funds that can be used in the mitigation of the disaster and its impacts. If a large-scale disaster is predicted to happen shortly, say six months, then it may be difficult to gather the necessary financial resources needed to reimburse volunteers, buy necessary medications, provide basic needs (food, shelter, and clothing), and transportation. Financial challenges have been reported to one of the most encountered challenges during and after a disaster (Kritt, 2018; Watson, Caravani, Mitchell, Katie, & Peters, 2015; Reyes, 2017).

How My Leadership Challenges Relate to Challenges of Other Leaders

The leadership challenges discussed above are also related to the challenges faced by other leaders. For instance, it has been reported that the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) continually faces the challenge of ensuring that there are adequate funds needed to mitigate disasters (Wiggins, 2018). According to Katz, Attal-Juncqua, and Fischer (2017), the Disaster Relief Fund (DRF), under the management of FEMA, is the vital source of funding for federal assistance to states following the outbreak of a significant emergency or a major disaster under the Stafford Act. However, Kat et al. (2017) noted that although there exist federal mechanisms aimed at mobilizing assistance towards local and state governments, this does not guarantee timely and adequate funding when there is an outbreak.

CDC is tasked with tracking diseases and quickly detect outbreaks. CDC director is, sometimes, faced with financial challenges during outbreaks. For instance, according to Fischer, Santibanez, Jones, Anderson, and Merlin (2017), some outbreaks (e.g., Ebola) need rapid response thus presenting unique challenges in funding. Fischer et al. (2017) further noted that federal budget and appropriations procedures are complex thus prolonging the process of releasing funds. Lastly, the Governor of an afflicted state may face financial challenges because of their relatively small budget compared to the federal governments. Consequently, the Governor may be required to seek assistance from federal agencies such as the CDC.

Description of how Challenges Identified Collectively Affect Crisis Response

The two challenges that were identified in the individual case analyses are challenges related to the collection of information related to the impending disaster and funding challenges. There are various ways the two challenges collectively affect crisis response by the system and the individuals within it. First, it is worth noting that the absence of adequate funding hurts data collection (Madu & Kuei, 2017).

By failing to have the right information regarding an impending disaster, the system (such as a County or a State) cannot appropriately prepare for a disaster or an outbreak. That is, the system will not in a position to ensure that there is the presence of adequate human (e.g., volunteers and medical professionals), infrastructural (e.g., houses), basic needs (e.g., food and water), and drugs or medications needed to respond to a disaster appropriately. Consequently, it means that the system is not prepared for the disaster. In such a case, the individuals within a system become highly vulnerable to the disaster.

How Transformational and Transactional Leaders Might Influence Outcomes in this Case

Transformational leadership is characterized by the leader's encouragement or motivation of the followers and finding practical solutions to a problem (Rouco, 2015; StorbergWalker & HaberCurran, 2017). Transformational leaders do this through collaboration among team members (DuBrin, 2015; Prendergast, 2018; Shalley, Hitt, & Zhou, 2015). Consequently, in the current case analysis, a transformational leader is likely to be at the frontline in seeking collaboration from all the stakeholders that can help in ensuring that there is adequate disaster preparation such as Director, FEMA, Director, CDC Governor of an afflicted state, and Incident Response Commander. Consequently, the transformation leader is in a better position to encourage discussion among these experts to find a solution to the funding challenge. Transformational leaders have also been reported to be flexible and adapt to situations at hand.

One of the characteristics of leaders who embrace transactional leadership is the focus role of supervision within the controlled actions of the members of the organization (Hussein, 2018). As such, a transactional leader is likely not to offer proper leadership aimed at providing an adequate plan and response to the disaster. This is because a transactional leader wants to be a supervisor rather than being a team player (Hussein, 2018. Another attribute of transactional leaders is resistance to change (Eweje & Bathurst, 2017; Shermon, 2016; Ward, 2016). As such, such leaders may stick to ineffective approaches to mitigating a disaster because of the failure to consult experts in the field.

The Impact of Poor Leadership on the Outcome of the Case

Poor leadership is likely to lead to the devastating impact of an outbreak or a disaster. This is because, in the presence of poor leadership, there will be ineffective strategies of countering or mitigating the disaster. For instance, failure to appropriately plan (e.g., provision of inadequate drugs) during a disease outbreak may lead to a quick spread of the disease across the affected population. As a result, it is highly likely that there will be high morbidity and mortality rates. Also, failure to adequately plan during a disease outbreak means that the affected population will take a longer time to eradicate the disease thus resulting in increased health care costs.

References

DuBrin, A. J. (2015). Leadership: research findings, practice, and skills. Boston, MA: Cengage Learning.

Eweje, G., & Bathurst, R. (2017). CSR, sustainability, and leadership. Abingdon, UK: Taylor & Francis.

Fischer, L. S., Santibanez, S., Jones, G., Anderson, B., & Merlin, T. (2017). How is CDC funded to respond to public health emergencies? Federal appropriations and budget execution process for non-financial experts. Health Security, 15(3), 307-311.

Hussein, A., Ismail. (2018). Predictive models for school leadership and practices. Hershey, PA: IGI Global.

Katz, R., Attal-Juncqua, A., & Fischer, J. E. (2017). Funding public health emergency preparedness in the united states. American Journal of Public Health, 107(Suppl 2), S148-S152.

Kritt, E. (2018). 9 financial problems after a natural disaster-and what you can do about them. Retrieved from https://www.consumerfinance.gov/about-us/blog/9-financial-problems-after-natural-disasterand-what-you-can-do-about-them/

Madu, C. N., & Kuei, C.-H. (2017). Handbook of disaster risk reduction & management. New Jersey, NJ: World Scientific Publishing Company.

Management Association, Information Resources. (2018). Emergency and disaster management: concepts, methodologies, tools, and applications: concepts, methodologies, tools, and applications. IGI Global.

Prendergast, H. (2018). Front office management for the veterinary team e-book. Amsterdam, Netherland: Elsevier Health Sciences.

Reyes, N. (2017). Philippines' new approach provides quick financing after natural disasters. Retrieved from http://www.worldbank.org/en/news/feature/2017/08/16/philippines-new-approach-provides-quick-financing-after-natural-disasters

Rose, J., Spitz, H. I., Schein, L., Burlingame, G., & Muskin, P. R. (2018). Psychological effects of catastrophic disasters: group approaches to treatment. Abingdon, UK: Taylor & Francis.

Rouco, J. C. D. (2015). Ecmlg2015-11th European conference on management leadership and governance: ecmlg2015. England, UK: Academic Conferences and publishing limited.

Shalley, C. E., Hitt, M. A., & Zhou, J. (2015). The oxford handbook of creativity, innovation, and entrepreneurship. Oxford, OX: Oxford University Press.

Shermon, G. (2016). Digital human resources - leadership disrupted. Morrisville, NC: Lulu.com.

StorbergWalker, J., & HaberCurran, P. (2017). Theorizing women & leadership: new insights & contributions from multiple perspectives. Charlotte, NC: IAP.

The International Federation of Red Cross. (2019). Red cross Red Crescent National Societies. Retrieved from https://www.ifrc.org/en/what-we-do/disaster-management/responding/disaster-response-system/dr-tools-and-systems/red-cross-red-crescent-national-societies/

United Nations Office for Outer Space Affairs. (2019). Information management for disaster management. Retrieved from http://www.un-spider.org/risks-and-disasters/emergency-and-disaster-management/information-management

Ward, K. (2016). Against the odds: Murray Robertson and Spreydon Baptist church. Morrisville, NC: Lulu.com.

Watson, C., Caravani, A., Mitchell, T., Katie, K., & Peters, K. (2015). Finance for reducing disaster risk: 10 things to know. Retrieved from https://www.odi.org/sites/odi.org.uk/files/odi-assets/publications-opinion-files/9480.pdf

Wiggins, R. (2018). We meet you where you are: disaster preparedness. Retrieved from https://www.fema.gov/blog/2018-12-18/we-meet-you-where-you-are-disaster-preparedness