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Crisis management (prevention, preparedness, response, and reconstruction) is a tough task for political and bureaucratic leaders. This article documents the persistent tensions between the expectations and realities of crisis leadership. It explores the popular notion that crises provide key opportunities for reform. The very occurrence of a crisis is then thought to expose the status quo as problematic, making it easier to gain momentum for alternative policies and institutions. We argue that the opportunities for reform in the wake of crisis are smaller than often thought. The prime reason is that the requisites of crisis leadership are at odds with the requirements of effective reform.
network. These can only be handled adequately by operational leaders with sufficient mandate to take the actions they deem necessary (Flin 1996).
5. Popular expectation: Leaders should be compassionate toward victims of crises. This empathy should play out in both word and deed.
Research finding: Leaders want to provide victims with care, but they often fall prey to their own unrealistic promises.
In the event of a crisis, citizens in the risk society anticipate high-standard government care. The public demands that government meet their short-term physical and financial needs. They also expect assistance in the years following a crisis; they want help with material disruptions, health problems, and psychosocial trauma. Victims of disaster are both organized and vocal in assuring these needs are met (Reich 1991; Kletz 1994). Only leaders who choose to gamble popularity will attempt to ignore or silence victims' groups. But tempering victims' emotional and prima facie eminently reasonable claims is difficult even for the gambler. In the heat of massive tragedy, leaders may be tempted to assure victims of continued government support.
To illustrate, we look again at the 1992 El-Al Boeing 747 crash in Amsterdam. The Israeli cargo plane devastated, in particular, two apartment buildings. Mayor Van Thijn's "caring government" response promised the inhabitants long-term care. A component of his response was directed at lobbying central government to provide resident status to affected illegal immigrants (Rosenthal et al. 1994). Alas, nonvictim illegal migrants endeavored to exploit the upshot of Van Thijn's efforts, conniving to obtain resident permits. The mayor's reaction to this unanticipated entanglement was highly unpopular. He had to respond with screening procedures,...