Collaboration and Leadership

Collaboration and Leadership

Collaboration and Leadership

The article written by Gregory Streib and William L. Waugh Jr. defines collaboration as working together as a team to achieve organizational goals. Leadership, on the other hand, relates to the act of influencing people in the right manner so that they work towards meeting corporate objectives. Collaboration, Leadership, and Management are terms which are sometimes used to mean the same thing though they have different meanings. Management is the act of overseeing the work being done by others. It is also the process of ensuring that the daily operations of a business are running smoothly without any hitches (Răducan & Răducan, 2014). Although the authors have some point on collaboration and leadership, their paper does not ultimately address these two terms adequately. This article is about emergency management evolution, the important roles of building networks and the roles of emergency managers. It will also talk about how to develop an effective leadership strategy.

Evolution of Emergency Management

Leadership and collaboration are two major attributes that managers require for them to perform well in their organizations. Be they emergency managers, health administrators and bank manager they all need to collaborate with other members of their institutions for them to succeed. Therefore, collaboration is necessary as it ensures success in organizations (Waugh & Streib, 2006).

Professional emergency management started way back in the 1990s. The success of disaster managers was defined by effectively relating with government officials. Emergency managers must be in good relationships with the government officers. For them to have healthy relationships, they must collaborate with them in a right way. For instance, organizations that deal with hazardous disasters must effectively work together with the relevant disaster networks (Kiron, Kruschwitz, Haanaes, Reeves, Fuisz-Kehrbach, & Kell, 2015).  Collaboration is essential, but managers also must possess excellent leadership skills.  

The Essential Roles of Networks

It is important for emergency managers to develop networks as this helps in ensuring efficiency. Government owned companies build networks with non-governmental companies. Contracting services to these enterprises is an example of collaboration. In today’s world, emergency management has not been solely left to be the role of the government (Waugh & Streib, 2006).

One thing which is right about Waugh and Streib’s article is that emergency management should include the community members and neighbours. They must help each other before the necessary assistance arrives since aid cannot come up in a day. To add on this, the community’s also must come up with measures that prevent these before they occur. Networks are essentials since almost all the disaster operations require the involvement of different participants. Leaving out some members in any response activity is a grave mistake (Kiron et al., 2015).