The role of community leadership in disaster recovery projects: Tsunami lessons from Japan

Lin, Yiwen; Kelemen, Mihaela; Klyomiya, T

Abstract

Japan’s 2011 catastrophic disasters have had devastating effects on the economy and the livelihood of the communities affected. Given the complex and multi-layered consequences of such disasters, recovery and reconstruction pose enormous challenges requiring the involvement of multiple stakeholders and the application of various project management approaches in order to “build back better” (Clinton, 2006; Mannakkara and Wilkinson, 2012).
Understanding the differences between conventional projects and disaster recovery projects can lead to a better chance of success in disaster recovery projects for although they have unique features and challenges many of the Project Management key tenets are still relevant for disaster situations. Where conventional Project Management tools do not appear to work, they need to be adapted to the disaster context or new tools need to be developed to account for the challenges (Yi and Yang, 2014). However, the application of project management tools is not sufficient, ‘active leadership’ is needed throughout all the phases of the project life cycle (LaBrosse, 2007). Active leadership is expressed as a combination of business/ technical skills and softer social skills such as compassion and understanding of the local culture.

Citation

Lin, Y., Kelemen, M., & Klyomiya, T. (2017). The role of community leadership in disaster recovery projects: Tsunami lessons from Japan. International Journal of Project Management, 35(5), 913-924. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijproman.2016.09.005

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Sep 4, 2016
• Online Publication Date: Oct 6, 2016
• Publication Date: 2017-07
• Deposit Date: Sep 10, 2019
• Publicly Available Date: Sep 24, 2019
• Journal: International Journal of Project Management
• Print ISSN: 0263-7863
• Electronic ISSN: 1873-4634
• Publisher: Elsevier
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 35
• Issue: 5
• Pages: 913-924
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijproman.2016.09.005
• Keywords: ‘Active leadership’; Stakeholder management; Community leaders; Disaster recovery projects; Case study; Japanese culture
• Public URL: https://nottingham-repository.worktribe.com/output/2598287
• Publisher URL: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0263786316300953
• Contract Date: Sep 10, 2019