Emergency Management, 2nd Edition

Chapter 4 THE EMERGENCY MANAGER: EVOLVING ROLES AND SHIFTING PARADIGMS

The single most significant societal change that has most altered community preparedness has been the increased professionalization of local emergency managers.

—Thomas E. Drabek, Major Themes in Disaster Preparedness and Response Research

The development of a disaster bureaucracy and the emergence of national disaster relief policies created a need for people to fill the roles created by this new paradigm. By default, this role became associated with the civil defense planners funded by the federal government who were largely retired military personnel. The result was an initial bias toward detailed response planning that did not align well with the national emphasis on comprehensive emergency management. This was further complicated by the emergence of a growing body of specialized knowledge and theory on emergency management, largely as the result of social science research. The result has been confusion over the evolving role of the emergency manager.

Complicating this has been a disagreement over what precisely is the role of the emergency manager. For many, that role continues to be focused almost solely on response, suggesting that emergency management is merely a discipline focusing on operational issues. For those espousing comprehensive emergency management, the role is seen as much more strategic and that emergency management is an emerging profession.

In examining the role of the emergency ...