How Leadership Can Go Wrong:

A Crisis Situation That Should Not Have Happened

Team #3

Mount Saint Vincent University

December 4th, 2016

Introduction:

Oxford Dictionary describes leadership as an action of leading a group or organization.Author, Susan Ward, describes leadership as an art of motivating a group of people to act towards achieving a common goal. If we look at our definitions of leadership, then really anyone can be a leader. A captain of a sports team would be an example of a common "every- day person" being a leader. However, not everyone can be a leader of a business or organization. The leadership role tends to fall on the chief executive officer, or top managing rank, depending on how the organization is structured. Susan Ward also wrote that someone could develop into being a good leader. However, those persons must possess traits and qualities that make people want to follow their action. Therefore, a leader can be developed if they have certain traits. When we think of someone who we want to lead us within our organizations, we want someone is who cool-headed, visionary, courageous, a good communicator, inspiring, knowledgeable and someone you can trust. These are the people who are in control of an organization and if they possess all those traits, that will make for a good business leader. An example of a good business leader would be Tim Cook, Bill Gates and Elon Musk. These three men fit the perfect description of what a good business leader with their vision and aspiration to change the world for the better.

Not all top managing persons are good leaders though. In this paper, we will talk about some crisis situations that occurred and how leadership failed in those crises. We will make common references to the traits of what a good leader has and relate it to how it was not shown within the incidents we have chosen to explore.

Canada's Largest Mass Murder

On April 18^th and 19^th 2020, Gabriel Wortman committed the most horrific act imaginable by murdering 22 people, across Central Nova Scotia, including Constable Heidi Stevenson, a Royal Canadian Mounted Police officer. This tragedy has been deemed the largest mass shooting in Canadian history, making it not only a local crisis but, a national crisis. Mr. Wortman used a mock RCMP replica vehicle to go on a two-day killing spree, taking the lives of innocent people, in his path.Police were criticized for not using the Alert Ready system to warn the public about the attacks, as well as not responding to reports of Wortman's behaviour and acts of domestic violence made before.

When we look at a horrific tragedy such as this, we must ask ourselves how did this happen? Did the RCMP do everything they could to prevent such a tragedy from occurring? Does this incident fall on the leadership of the RCMP?

There were Earlier warnings to police:In June 2010, Wortman was investigated by Halifax Regional Police for threatening his parents, but no official action was taken due to a lack of evidence. In May 2011, Truro Police received a tip from an unnamed source via email about Wortman's stash of guns and his desire to "kill a cop". The tipster warned about Wortman's recent stress and mental health issues, and said he always kept a handgun close by. The tip was transferred to the Nova Scotia RCMP for jurisdictional reasons, but it is unclear what action was taken by them, and the tip was ultimately purged from their records, as is standard protocol according to the RCMP.

A former neighbour in Portapique said she reported him to the RCMP in the summer of 2013 for assaulting his spouse and having a cache of illegal firearms, but they declined to take firmer action due to not receiving a complaint from the partner. The former neighbour ended up leaving Portapique after Wortman became more aggressive and threatening to her in response to the complaint. The RCMP confirmed they had received the neighbour's complaint, but that the file had since been purged from their records.

Following the attacks, many questions were raised about why Nova Scotia RCMP failed to use Alert Ready, Canada's emergency warning system, to warn the public about the attacks but instead chose to use social platforms Twitter and Facebook to provide updates. RCMP officials said they had been dealing with an unfolding situation and details were being updated frequently. However, the areas affected had poor cellular internet service and were mostly populated by seniors who might not have used social media. Relatives of the victims pointed out that the use of Alert Ready could have saved lives. Chief Superintendent Leather of the Nova Scotia RCMP Criminal Investigation Division said, an investigation would be conducted into the decision-making process on alerting the public. On April 22, Leather said officers in Dartmouth were asked by the province about a warning at 10:15 a.m., but they did not agree on details like wording before Wortman died 71 minutes later. The Unites States Consulate in Halifax said it emailed American citizens in Nova Scotia warning them of the situation using the RCMP's information, so the Americans in the area were aware of the unfolding situation before a lot of Nova Scotia's own residents. How is it the USA can warn its citizens in a different country to an unfolding high-risk situation but, our very own federal police cannot?

We can focus on the what ifs of this terrible crisis, like, what if the RCMP had of investigated those complaints made years prior, would Wortman have been able to do this horrific act. Or, what if they used the Alert Ready system, would that have saved lives. The answer is simple in that, we do not know, no one will ever know. People can assume it would have because, as families of the victims argued, if the alert ready system was used, their loved one would have stayed home. The issue we see with this national crisis is, the lack of accountability and poor communication from the RCMP. Superintendent Chris Leather mentioned that using social media was a quicker way to ensure that people got the message of the unfolding situation, when we know that isn't true. The Alert Ready system is there to notify all Nova Scotians, at the click on a button.

On July 28^th, 2020, federal Public Safety Minister, Bill Blair, announced a public inquiry. The federal and provincial governments had previously considered a more narrow "joint review" but gave into public pressure for a more expansive public inquiry.Through this public inquiry, we will get the answers we are looking for to this horrific tragedy as members involved will be under oath when testifying and be compelled to tell the truth. We fear there will be many other things come to light where the leadership of the RCMP has failed Nova Scotians, regarding this incident.

Oxfam International Confederation Crisis

Founded in 1942 as a famine relief committee, Oxfam has grown into an international confederation made up of multiple organizations that fight for equality and the end of poverty around the world. It focuses on raising awareness as well as funds to help end poverty by providing clean water, natural resources, food, emergency response, and help during conflicts, disasters and inequality shown towards women and other minorities.

Following an earthquake in 2010, it was alleged that senior staff working in Haiti, including the director of operations Roland Van Hauwermeiren, were caught using prostitutes. Once made public, more allegations came to light about the use of prostitutes during missions in Chad and other reports of workers being accused of sexual abuse. While questions arose about their recruitment and screening measures for staff and volunteers, it was later discovered that Van Hauwermeiren had allegedly left another charity organization following an investigation regarding the use of prostitutes.

Oxfam released a brief statement explaining the actions they were taking to prevent these situations from occurring in the future, including the installment of a confidential whistleblowing hotline and reinforcing their policies on sexual harassment. With no mention of the victims and no apology, the public was not satisfied with the organization's response. People were cancelling their donations and celebrities were backing out of their endorsements. To make matters worse, CEO Mark Goldring gave an interview where he said, "Certainly, the scale and the intensity of the attacks feels out of proportion to the level of culpability" (NewIndianXpress, 2018). Both the statements and the CEO's response showed no level of compassion, they did not take responsibility for their actions and the CEO played the victim. Yes, they were quick to dismiss employees and they asked the director of operations to resign, but what was said to the public in no way addressed how the actions of their staff contradicts their values as an organization - everything they stand for and the reason why people supported them by donating money.

Unfortunately, this crisis was unavoidable as the organization did not have proper policies and resources in place to aid in preventing these types of events from happening as well as addressing them quickly and effectively. In addition, the CEO was not demonstrating the leadership traits needed during his interview, such as being cool headed and a good communicator, when the organization needed it the most. In recent years, Oxfam has since released multiple statements offering more details into the allegations, the results of the internal investigations as well as a sincere apology for not only their lack of empathy in their initial statement but also how their actions do not represent what their organization stands for and that they are committed to change.

The October Crisis

In 1963 a group called the Front de Libration du Qubec (FLQ) was formed with the goals of creating an independent Qubcois state. Using any means of protest necessary, the FLQ demanded independence from the modernization and Anglicization of the province and all its influences by committing armed robberies and detonating bombs in residential areas, government buildings, private universities, military bases, and the Montreal Stock Exchange building. However, in 1970 the FLQ took things further by kidnapping the British Trade Commissioner, James Cross, and holding him hostage. The first of its kind in North America, no one was prepared for a political kidnapping.

In order to have the hostage released, the FLQ demanded that the government give them money, a plane out of the country, the release of 23 FLQ detainees, as well as the broadcast of their manifesto. Only having 24 hours to comply, the government tried negotiating with one part of the FLQ, meanwhile another group of members kidnapped a second political member, Pierre Laporte, Quebec's Deputy Premier and Minister of Immigration, Manpower and Labour.

In order to protect public officials in Ottawa, Trudeau enlisted the help of the Canadian military. In a well-known interview, CBC reporter Tim Ralfe asked Trudeau why there were people with guns around the city. Trudeau answered with a smile, but answered most of Ralfe's questions with more questions such as, "haven't you noticed?" and when Ralfe mentioned how the guns were worrisome, Trudeau responded with "have they done anything to you?" (CBC, 2011). When questioned by Ralfe about the lengths Trudeau would go when it came to suspending civil liberties in order to maintain order in Quebec, Trudeau answered with, "Well, just watch me." (CBC, 2011)

Wanting to act quickly, Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau invoked the War Measures Act giving government full power impacting civil liberties in Quebec. He also requested assistance from the Canadian Armed Forces. Unfortunately, Pierre Laporte was killed by the FLQ, but James Cross was rescued after government negotiated a release by promising some of the kidnappers' safe travel outside of the country while others were captured and imprisoned. Trudeau's use of the War Measures Act was both criticized and supported by Canadian citizens and politicians as it had never been used internally as a measure of control during a crisis. As a result, the War Measures Act was later replaced by the Emergencies Act which would still allow government to handle emergencies and crises, but their decisions are subject to the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, the Canadian Bill of Rights, and the approval of Parliament.

Prime Minister Trudeau showed various leadership traits during the October Crisis, however, some were stronger than others. His biggest strength was his courage to not give in to all the FLQ's demands and to challenge status quo by invoking the War Measures Act. Some might argue, though, that Trudeau's use of the War Measures Act as well as his interview with Tim Ralfe left some Canadians to lose trust in him. Although Trudeau's actions are weighed differently amongst the public, his courage and resolve during the crisis is something to be admired.

Mrs. Clinton

Mrs. Clinton, who oversaw a wheat flour firm. This leader was quite careless and to some extent. Mrs. Clinton never took the time to ensure that everything was done correctly. The one of the reason for where leadership can go wrong, resulting in a crisis that should never have happened is a case whereby the leader fails to have the open-door policy. Her work was just signing invoices, forms, and other accounting records documents. One of the reasons was that she was not very conversant with accounting, Clinton was overwhelmed by work, but she did not ask for help or hire the relevant people where such skills were required.

Clinton did not think of hiring an internal accountant or auditor to ensure everything was done by the book. Therefore, even when people in the account's office embezzled funds or wrote bloated and inexistent invoices, she did not notice, and no one was there to advise her. On one financial year, when the auditors from internal revenue service came to audit the firm, they found significant inconsistencies in the financial records (Wildavsky, 2018). She don't know what to do and did not invite the employees or other people to assist her with tentative solutions. The outcome was that she was solely responsible for this error.

When the IRS requested for the firm to pay the backlog in taxes, the firm was not in a position to pay. As such, they filed for insolvency, and the firm was foreclosed. If Mrs. Clinton was keen, did her job well, trustworthy, and had internal auditors, the employees could have helped in salvaging the firm and avoiding the crisis.

Conclusion: