Leaders as emotional managers : Emotion management in response organisations during a hostage taking in a Swedish prison.
Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to develop a deeper understanding of how leaders manage their own and others emotions in professional crisis management organizations during severely demanding episodes. The empirical case is a hostage drama that occurred in a small Swedish town. Although staff at the local prison were situationally prepared and trained in incident exercises, two inmates with knives fled the prison after taking a warden hostage. Design/methodology/approach: A grounded theory approach was used. In all, 14 informants from four Swedish authorities were interviewed on the basis of their involvement in the hostage drama. Findings: According to the analysis, an emergency response leader emotion management is framed by an organizationally embedded emotional regime which is summed up in two core themes: focus on the task and do not let emotions interfere; and provide the task force with maximum physical and psychological security. The leader emotion management within this framework consists of two interdependent processes, one more organization oriented and one more individual oriented. Research limitations/implications: Small sample, lack of representativeness, and lack of illumination of possible gender-related aspects. Practical implications: The suggested model may be valuable in educational settings. Originality/value: A new integrative, theoretical process model of leadership and emotion management in complex, stressful operations. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2017 APA, all rights reserved)
The interviews were transcribed verbatim and analyzed according to the constant comparative method of Glaser and Strauss (1967) and clustering, a process of moving to higher levels of abstraction.
Exploratory grounded theory - interviews
Informant selection, then InterviewsThe interviews consisted of open-ended questions and individually adapted follow-up questions covering the following themes:individual role and task during the hostage episodeexperience of individual actions during the hostage episodeexperience of own and others’ emotions during the hostage episodeexperience of organizational actions during the hostage episodeexperience of collaboration between the authorities and the organization duringthe hostage episodestress and demanding conditions during the hostage episode.
Participants were asked to report on their experiences of involvement in the hostage episode
Develop a deeper understanding of how leaders manage their own and others’ emotions in professional crisis management organizations during severely demanding episodes
The study relies on self-reported data onlyA little more than one year elapsed between the hostage drama and the interviewsSmall sample
According to the analysis, emergency response leader’s emotion management is framed by an organizationally embedded emotional regime which is summed up in two core themes: focus on the task and do not let emotions interfere; and provide the task force with maximum physical and psychological security. The leader’s emotion management within this framework consists of two interdependent processes, one more organization oriented and one more individual oriented.
The ethical guidelines of the Swedish Research Council were followed in dealing with the informants at all times
The empirical case is a hostage drama that occurred in a small Swedish town. Interviews with participantsAlthough staff at the local prison were situationally prepared and trained in incident exercises, two inmates with knives fled the prison after taking a warden hostage
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