| This study focuses on leadership and the use of power perceived by local emergency managers and their role in relationship to the media, public officials, and administrative and litigation issues.; The study supports the thesis that there should be a profile of key leadership characteristics, key bases of power, and a clear understanding of the role among emergency managers. The research utilizes Fisher/Tack/Wheeler's typology of leadership as a conceptual framework to study emergency managers and leadership. The study is also consistent with French and Raven's theory and classification of power and Fisher's earlier findings on key bases of power. This research also has special relevance to the International City Managers Association's and Drabek's classification of leadership characteristics.; McBride-Jones employs a proportional stratified sampling to select local emergency managers for her research survey. These emergency managers, who hold membership in the National Coordinating Council on Emergency Management (NCCEM), provide the needed data on leadership characteristics that (NCCEM) emergency managers feel they possess. The questionnaire includes statements about emergency managers' leadership characteristics, leadership style, personal attributes, professional and personal data, the use of power, and the role of the emergency manager and its relationship to the media, public officials, and administrative and litigation issues.; The study also analyzes the Emergency Management Information Center's case studies describing two Presidential Declared Disasters of large metropolitan areas to assess the leadership role of emergency managers in the context of media relations, administrative and leadership responsibilities, and liability issues. These are illustrated by the case study analysis that extract and document leadership problems and issues.; The research demonstrates that emergency managers perceive themselves as having key characteristics and using key bases of power, and a clear understanding of their role as an emergency manager, which makes a significant contribution to effective leadership of local emergency managers. It helps local emergency managers to ascertain their leadership characteristics and to identify their bases of power that enable them to mitigate, prepare, respond, and recover from disasters. This research also facilitates the emergency managers' challenge to document the role of the emergency manager in her/his relationship to the media, public officials, as well as administrative and litigation issues. |
