Disaster management leadership and the need for virtue, mindfulness, and practical wisdom

• Published in: Progress in disaster science 2022-12, Vol.16, p.100248, Article 100248
• Main Author: Crosweller, Mark
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Leadership; Mindfulness; Neoliberalism; Practical wisdom; Virtue
• ISSN: 2590-0617; 2590-0617
• DOI: 10.1016/j.pdisas.2022.100248

Disaster management leaders are instrumental in reducing loss and suffering from complex disasters, however recent scholarship questions the efficacy of certain leadership characteristics when attempting to achieve this. The extent that character, shaped either by socially established cooperative human activities and shared lived experiences, or by imperceptible sociocultural influences promoting individualism and economic growth through a resolute higher authority, is examined from the perspectives of 89 disaster management leaders. The results indicate that self-interest constrains trust, compassion, and other characteristics. Further research is proposed to determine how mindfulness can incentivise policy and structural change in response to complex disasters. •Sociocultural influences shape normatively virtuous intentions and motivations.•Excessive self-interest and self-importance constrain leaders from acting with virtue.•Neoliberalism prioritises virtue towards economic self-interest as the highest good.•Mindfulness may bring greater awareness to the root causes of suffering.•Practical wisdom may enhance the ability to challenge the root causes of suffering.