Red Cross Workers Perceptions of Leaders in Disaster

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Red Cross Workers Perceptions of Leaders in
Disaster

• Carol A. McBryde
• Oklahoma State University

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Background

• When disaster strikes a community, often the
  first organization to respond is the Red Cross.
• Volunteers are relied on for the bulk of the
  work, leadership, and resources to fulfill the
  mission of disaster relief
• The volunteers in the field are led by leaders
  trained by the Red Cross
• This type of leadership requires something
  different
• (Crichton, Lauche, Flin, 2005 Hamilton, 2005
  Smith, 1989)

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Statement of the Problem

• When a group of Red Cross volunteers comes
  together in the field, they need to work
  together, efficiently and effectively, almost
  immediately (Hamilton, 2005)
• Good leadership is critical to this occurring
• Little research exists that helps us understand
  this type of socially-close leadership in the
  context of crisis or disaster

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Theoretical Framework

• Charismatic Leadership Theory
• Psychological theory
• Determination of charisma relies on attribution
  by follower
• Behavioral Dimensions
• Sensitivity to environmental context
• Strategic vision and articulation
• Sensitivity to member needs
• Personal risk
• Unconventional behavior
• (Conger Kanungo, 1987, 1988, 1998)

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Theoretical Framework

• Transformational Leadership Theory
• Key Premise
• Leaders motivate followers to achieve beyond both
  the leader and the followers expectations
• Six Components
• Inspirational
• Intellectual stimulation
• Individualized consideration
• Contingent reward
• Management-by-exception
• Laissez-faire
• (Bass, 1985, 1988)

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Purpose of the Study

• The purpose of this study was to describe the
  perceptions of Red Cross workers, both paid staff
  and volunteers, toward their leaders in disaster
  emergency response situations.

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Research Questions

• How do views of leadership vary among Red Cross
  workers?
• How do the patterns of Red Cross workers
  descriptions of their leaders actual behavior
  differ according to their ideal expectations of
  their leaders?
• Does charismatic leadership theory or
  transformational leadership theory help us
  understand the patterns of Red Cross workers
  perceptions?
• Is there a distinct pattern of behavior that
  emerges as effective leadership in emergency
  response situations?

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Methodology Q-Method

• Q-method is designed to study perceptions
• Participants are given a set of statements and
  asked to rank order them on a continuum
• The full ranking (a sort) is compared to other
  sorts through correlation and factor analysis
• The factors that emerge represent theoretical
  views of the topic that exist within the
  population
• These factors are then explored and described in
  depth
• (Brown, 1993 McKeown Thomas, 1988 Stephenson,
  1953)

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The Q-Set

• The concourse for this study consisted of
  statements derived from the theories of
  transformational and charismatic leadership
• A structured sample procedure was used to
  organize the statements into four categories
  Self, Task, Relationship, and Organization
• 75 total statements made up the concourse
• Some statements were eliminated for similarity to
  other statements, while some statements were
  combined

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Refining the Q-Set

• All statements were rewritten to reflect more
  colloquial language
• All negatively worded statements were rewritten
• Some statements were adapted to include language
  shared with the researcher in personal
  conversations regarding crisis and leadership
• Resulting Q-set included 36 statements

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The P-Set

• The population for this study was Red Cross
  workers from Oklahoma City, Bryan/College
  Station, and Waco
• Volunteers in these cities have dealt with a
  variety of different disasters, including
  hurricanes, tornados, and fires
• Twenty workers participated in the study for a
  total of 40 sorts
• In Q, this is considered an extensive study
  (McKeown Thomas, 1988)

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Procedures

• Participants were asked to sort the statements
  onto a form board from most unlike to most
  like
• Structure of the form board

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Conditions of Instruction

• Participants were asked to sort the statements
  two times according to the following conditions
  of instruction
• During the last disaster in which you
  participated in the Red Cross response, how would
  you describe your Red Cross leader(s)? ACTUAL
• In the next disaster in which you participate in
  the Red Cross response, how would you describe
  your ideal expectations of your Red Cross
  leader(s)? IDEAL

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Data Analysis

• PQ Method software was utilized for data analysis
  (Schmolck, 2002)
• Multiple analyses were performed in an effort to
  determine the factor solution with the best
  theoretical and statistical fit (McKeown
  Thomas, 1988)
• Final factor solution
• Centroid factor analysis with Varimax rotation on
  four factors

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Results

• Four factors were revealed
• Significance level of 0.40 to represent a
  defining sort (? .01) (McKeown Thomas, 1988)
• Distribution of sorts
• Factor 1 12 sorts
• Factor 2 4 sorts
• Factor 3 7 sorts
• Factor 4 3 sorts
• 10 sorts non-significant on any factor
• 4 sorts confounded (loaded on multiple factors)
• Attributed for 43 of the variance

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Research Question 1

• How do views of leadership vary among Red Cross
  workers?

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Show Me the Way

• Active leader
• Communicates clearly with followers
• Leader and follower committed to Red Cross
• Followers generally satisfied with leader
• Lack of focus on group or team
• The leader makes everything possible
• Extreme Statements

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See Me, Then Tell Me

• Follower wants to be seen for what they bring
  Follower wants to be told what to do
• Focus is on the follower
• Leader earns trust and respect from follower in
  order to be successful
• Leader is active in ways that empower and engage
  the follower
• Extreme Statements

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Stand Beside Me

• Leader must be focused on the work
• Leader and follower work in concert
• Follower is personally competent and confident
• Follower is motivated by their belief in the work
  
• Extreme Statements

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Please Understand Me

• Leader must understand follower as an individual
• Relationship between leader and follower is key
• Leader is active, but in more emotionally
  connected ways
• Extreme Statements

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Conclusions related to RQ 1

• Four distinct views of leadership exist among Red
  Cross workers
• Each view of leadership shows some commonality
  with other research related to crisis leadership
• Stand Beside Me is consistent with the leadership
  described in a study of the Mann Gulch Disaster
  (Weick, 1993)

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Conclusions related to RQ 1

• See Me, Then Tell Me is consistent with a study
  looking specifically at Red Cross leaders in
  Tanzanian refugee camps (Mintzburg, 2001)
• Please Understand Me seems to be connected with
  research that focuses on the relationship between
  the leader and the follower (McColl-Kennedy
  Anderson, 2002)
• Show Me the Way is similar to the incident
  command skills uncovered in a study of offshore
  installation managers (Flin and Slaven, 1996)

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Research Question 2

• How do the patterns of Red Cross workers
  descriptions of their leaders actual behavior
  differ according to their ideal expectations of
  their leaders?

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Actual v. Ideal Views

• In a general way, most people who are working for
  the Red Cross view their actual and ideal leader
  the same way.
• This is not to indicate that they are always
  satisfied with their leader, as some participants
  saw their actual leader as being the opposite of
  their ideal.
• Primarily, though, participants viewed leadership
  in a single way and evaluated their actual leader
  based on their ideal leader.

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Conclusions related to RQ 2

• Consistent with other research
• One research study of volunteer motivation
  concluded that volunteer satisfaction was related
  to their reason for volunteering (Govekar
  Govekar, 2002)

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Research Question 3

• Does charismatic leadership theory or
  transformational leadership theory help us
  understand the patterns of Red Cross workers
  perceptions?

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Charismatic Dimensions the Four Factors
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Transformational Components the Four Factors
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Conclusions related to RQ 3

• Neither charismatic leadership theory nor
  transformational leadership theory can fully
  explain Red Cross workers views of leadership
• In order to understand crisis leadership, theory
  needs to be
• Field-based (Weick, 1993)
• Context-driven (Mitroff, 2001)
• Socially-close perspective (Yagil, 1998)

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Research Question 4

• Is there a distinct pattern of behavior that
  emerges as effective leadership in emergency
  response situations?

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Consensus Statements
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Conclusions related to RQ 4

• There is no single view of leadership among Red
  Cross workers
• Commonalities do exist, the most important being
  a desire for ACTIVE leaders
• This need for an active leader is consistent with
  other research on crisis leadership, particularly
  field leadership (Crichton, 2005)

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Implications

• Training for Red Cross field leaders needs to
  consider the views of leadership held by their
  workers
• Field leaders must learn to quickly assess what
  the workers they are leading are looking for in a
  leader
• Field leaders must learn to personalize their
  leadership based on this assessment
• Theories and models of crisis leadership must
  consider context and social distance in order to
  be applicable to disaster field leadership

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Further Research

• Confirm results with Red Cross workers another
  part of the country
• Compare socially-close and socially-distant
  leaders in an agency such as the Red Cross
• Consider other leadership theories from the
  holistic perspective of disaster volunteers
• Examine the dispersion of these views of
  leadership in the population of Red Cross workers
• Use these views to consider the progression of
  Red Cross workers perceptions over the course of
  their involvement

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Questions?
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