Crisis Preparedness of Leadership Behaviors Among Elected Leaders During Hurricanes by Fredric Marc Francis MBA, American InterContinental University, 2007 BBA, American InterContinental University, 2005 Doctoral Study Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Business Administration Walden University September 2015 Abstract Crisis preparedness is the responsibility of every person, business, and leader, and leadership behavioral skills are an essential characteristic of crisis preparedness. The purpose of this case study was to explore the decisions of elected leaders along the Gulf Coast during Hurricanes Katrina and Ike in order to understand their leadership behaviors in crisis preparedness. The conceptual framework was based on the emergency management theory presented by McEntire in 2004, which helped to define the necessary components for leaders’ successful crisis preparedness. Data were collected through interviews with 5 members from the National Emergency Management Agency along with a document review of elected leader responses and decisions during both Hurricanes Katrina and Ike from government reports, previous studies, and scholarly articles. Data were interpretively analyzed by listing out several leadership models and the behaviors that identify them and then by reviewing the document study information in 2 matrices for methodological triangulation and data saturation. The findings highlighted 5 emerging themes named as the five Cs of crisis preparedness: compassion, continuity, communication, common sense, and confidence. This study may contribute to socialCrisis preparedness is the responsibility of every person, business, and leader, and leadership behavioral skills are an essential characteristic of crisis preparedness. The purpose of this case study was to explore the decisions of elected leaders along the Gulf Coast during Hurricanes Katrina and Ike in order to understand their leadership behaviors in crisis preparedness. The conceptual framework was based on the emergency management theory presented by McEntire in 2004, which helped to define the necessary components for leaders’ successful crisis preparedness. Data were collected through interviews with 5 members from the National Emergency Management Agency along with a document review of elected leader responses and decisions during both Hurricanes Katrina and Ike from government reports, previous studies, and scholarly articles. Data were interpretively analyzed by listing out several leadership models and the behaviors that identify them and then by reviewing the document study information in 2 matrices for methodological triangulation and data saturation. The findings highlighted 5 emerging themes named as the five Cs of crisis preparedness: compassion, continuity, communication, common sense, and confidence. This study may contribute to social change by identifying key leadership traits that governors and other elected leaders should use in crisis preparedness, which may contribute to the safety, health, and wellbeing of constituents during a natural disaster. Crisis Preparedness of Leadership Behaviors Among Governors During Hurricanes by Fredric Marc Francis MBA, American InterContinental University, 2007 BBA, American InterContinental University, 2005 Doctoral Study Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Business Administration Walden University September 2015 Dedication This paper is dedicated to my wife Stephanie and our kids, Aden, Ahrianna, McKenna, and Malachi. This journey has taken a lot of time away from my family, especially during special events. Many birthdays, games, and vacations were sacrificed while I pursued this goal. Without your love, patience, support, and understanding, this would never have come to fruition. Acknowledgments I would like to first acknowledge my parents and grandparents who always told me I can do anything I put my mind to. Especially to my grandfather Raymod Oborne Sr., I know you are looking down and help guide me. To my chair, Dr. Denise Land, you have stood by me during this entire journey, helping me through the good times and bad and always reminding me that if this was easy, everyone would do it. To my committee members, Dr. Mike Ewald and Dr. Patricia Fusch, thanks for helping me make this the best that it could be. Finally, Dr. Freda Turner, thanks for being my biggest cheerleader.

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Crisis Preparedness of Leadership Behaviors Among Elected Leaders During Hurricanes

ii LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS AND SYMBOLS iii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS iv LIST OF TABLES vi LIST OF FIGURES viii

Visual framing and social networking:a content analysis of the 2012 Barack Obama and Mitt Romney Facebook pages

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Endurheimtum landið! Teboðshreyfingin og orðræða frambjóðenda Repúblikanaflokksins

ELECTION 2012 HAS already begun. In fact, it's in full gear. To no one's surprise, President Barack Obama in early April formed his reelection committee, which will allow his campaign to begin raising money for what is expected to be the most expensive presidential campaign in American history. His reelection, though, is by no means a sure thing--thanks in large part to the state of the U.S. economy. With the U.S. unemployment rate hovering around nine percent, the national average price of gas approaching four dollars per gallon, and the housing market nationwide continuing to fall, Republicans are preparing for a presidential election that they hope will be a referendum on President Obama and his economic policies. A recent USA Today/Gallup poll should not give "Obama for America" (ofa) much comfort: Only 37 percent approve of the president's handling of the economy. With that as a backdrop, eight Republicans have already declared their candidacies for the Republican nomination--sensing a real opportunity to make Barack Obama a one-term president. The White House, of course, has taken notice of the polls and the competition. And it has readily acknowledged that the electoral map that won Obama the Oval Office in 2008 will be strikingly different in 2012. What follows is an evaluation of the Republican field for the nomination, who the White House fears most, and what will likely be the path to the presidency for the 2012 Republican nominee. The candidates WITH A WAR chest that dwarfs his closest competitor, former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney is seen by the White House as the early front-runner for the nomination. Money matters for Republicans--particularly in this election cycle. Obama the senator raised $750 million in 2008. With the power of the presidency, OFA is widely expected to meet or exceed that total in 2012. Romney's fundraising prowess was put on display in mid-May when he raised $10.25 million in Las Vegas in a single one-day call-a-thon. But it's not just Romney's network of wealthy donors that the White House fears. It's his ability to appeal to independents that won Romney the governorship in "liberal" Massachusetts. Since losing the Republican nomination to John McCain in 2008, Romney has never really stopped campaigning. From Iowa to New Hampshire to South Carolina and Florida--the states that vote first in the Republican nominating process--Romney has touted his business experience as a way to attack President Obama and his handling of the U.S. economy. The attacks on Obama (and Romney's high name identification) appear to be working. Romney now leads most polls of likely Republican voters. Even more impressive, he is the only Republican presidential candidate who leads President Obama in a head-to-head match-up in some recent national polls. Romney is betting that the faltering U.S. economy--combined with his business and executive experience--are the perfect ingredients to secure him the Republican nomination and ultimately the White House. As his campaign spokesman told me, "This election is about two things--jobs and the economy." Romney gave a preview of his campaign message in the first Republican debate in New Hampshire. Obama, he argued, didn't cause the economic recession. Instead, he said, his economic policies have prolonged it. Romney's message has found some resonance with voters. An nbc/Wall Street Journal poll released in mid-June found that 62 percent of those polled believe the country is moving in the wrong direction--a jump of twelve percent from a month earlier. Even the White House--both privately and publicly--acknowledges that the economy will likely be a focus of the 2012 presidential election. As David Axelrod, President Obama's senior adviser, put it on CNN's State of the Union: "The fundamental issue is how do people feel? Do they feel like we're making progress? Do they feel like we're moving in the right direction? …

The GOP's 2012 Field

It's CERTAIN TO BE the most expensive presidential race on record and it's shaping up to be one of the closest as well. With less than three months until Election Day, the campaigns of President Barack Obama and his Republican challenger, former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney, are each figuring out which path will lead them to 270 electoral votes and the keys to the White House. For Team Obama, the strategy for these last remaining months of campaigning remains unchanged: convince undecided voters that the administration's policies have helped the country make progress while simultaneously painting Mitt Romney as an out-of-touch Wall Street fat cat who will return the country to the economic policies of President George W. Bush. Unlike the Obama/McCain race four years ago, in which then-Senator Obama could run a largely positive campaign on a message of "hope and change," this campaign has been overwhelmingly negative. As a senior Obama campaign advisor told Politico in August of last year, "Unless things change and Obama can run on accomplishments, he will have to kill Romney." Mitt Romney's strategy to get to 2.7o essentially boils down to the very effective line that Ronald Reagan used against President Jimmy Carter in the 1980 presidential campaign: "Are you better off now than you were four years ago?" As a senior Romney strategist told me in mid-June, "This is an election about the state of the U.S. economy. We're focused on issues relating to job creation and deficit reduction. We feel we're in a strong position to make this election a referendum on the economy and how President Obama has managed it." Although there are stark differences in the way each side views the state of the U.S. economy, there are two key things that both campaigns readily acknowledge: President Obama is unlikely to expand the electoral map the way he did in zoo8; and this campaign, unlike the Obama/McCain race, is going to be close and very competitive. The mood of the electorate IN 2.008, BARACK Obama won the White House thanks to the perfect political storm: Voters had grown tired of eight years of Republican leadership under President George W. Bush; Obama sold himself as a new kind of political leader who could unite a divided electorate; and a coalition of young voters, upscale professionals, minorities, and independents embraced his message of "hope and change." For many in this coalition, zoo8 was more than an election--it was a movement. Four years later, much has changed. The president's job approval ratings have fallen from 63 percent when he was inaugurated to a little less than 47 percent today, according to an average of polls compiled by RealClearPolitics.com. More troubling for the president's re-election prospects is a recent Reuters/Ipsos poll that shows that a majority of independents feels that President Obama's policies have made it harder for Americans to gain employment. Fifty-two percent of independents said they agreed with the idea that "the president has not helped create more jobs in America." That's an argument that taps into the central message of the Romney campaign. With job growth slowing to anemic levels and the unemployment rate stuck above eight percent (and even higher in the battleground states of Florida, Nevada, and North Carolina), it's getting harder for President Obama to blame the weak recovery on the mistakes of his immediate predecessor, George W. Bush. As for the president's signature domestic achievement in his first term the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act--a majority of the general public views that law as a bust. Among registered voters, 57 percent of those surveyed by Reuters/Ipsos said that they believe the health care overhaul has damaged the economy--an argument that Mitt Romney has been making at campaign stops around the country. Advisors to Mitt Romney's presidential campaign argue that the Supreme Court's vindication of President Obama's health care law in late June while a short-term win for the president--may actually benefit Romney. …

Jon Decker

Papers

The GOP's 2012 Field

Obama and Romney: The Path to the Presidency