Sunday 25 September 2011

Recommended Leadership for Tent City Case Study

Recommended Leadership for Tent City Case Study:
The Smallsville city manager, Sarah Baker, sat back in her chair and took stock of the situation. The governor just called to ask for her help. It seems a forest fire is raging 90 miles away and a massive fire control operation is underway. Sarah's town, the governor said, is the only one in the region with an airport big enough to bed down aircraft with water suppressing equipment. Moreover, Smallsville is near a huge dam, which can be tapped for water supplies, and it is near a large spot of open land that can be used to erect a tent city for emergency responders. Would Smallsville be willing to host and support a massive emergency response fire suppression command and control center?

Sarah knew what this meant. Her Department of Public Works would be required to install tents in a large area just outside the Smallsville Airport. This would become a "tent city" of several thousand workers. Because of the time of year, the tent city area would require electricity for environmental control units, lighting, etc. Moreover, it would need a water supply, a field hospital, a field kitchen, and considerable communications equipment. This would involve support from her boss, the mayor, and from the Smallsville County Hospital, private food vendors, the Smallsville Airport Authority, the city communications director, the Department of Health and Sanitation, and many private citizen volunteers.

The stakes were high, but if Smallsville could carry this off, a considerable number of lives (human and animal) and property could be saved not just in Smallsville but also throughout the northwest region of the state. Yet, Sarah had a city to run and could not devote all her energies to this. Although the Department of Public Works would have a large role to play, she did not want to assign the management of this effort to it because of the necessary involvement of many other city and state agencies.

Sarah stood from her chair. She walked over to your office to ask for your advice on leadership style you would recommend for the "Tent City" project.

Place an order for your custom University Essay, Assignment, College Essays, Research Paper among others starting from $9.5 per page from Prime Essay Writings