With Hurricane Hanna looming just after the bluster of Hurricane Gustav, the post-Katrina pressure is on federal officials to say the right thing and provide the right aid, and they might want to pay some attention to Stern professors Frances Milliken and Joe Magee.
Milliken and Magee, professor and assistant professor of management and organizations, respectively, analyzed first-hand accounts of people directly involved in disaster relief for Hurricane Katrina and published the findings on the effects of power on disaster response.
They found that people holding higher positions of power tended to use abstract language when addressing relief efforts. Milliken and Magee also concluded that officials with greater power spoke with more confidence and certainty.
President George W. Bush was one of the key leaders Milliken and Magee analyzed. agueness on his part and that of other government officials provides a stark contrast to the specifics conveyed by survivors. Magee and Milliken used a survivor’s bleak, detailed recollection of cutting a hole through his roof to highlight their point.
Milliken said that she and her team of researchers were motivated by the apparent “disconnect” between what was being said by high-powered people and the stories of countless victims.
Magee argues that high-powered officials often perceived the disaster as less severe than it really was.
“It’s not surprising that they failed so badly,” he said, noting that this disconnect led to “broken communication” between different government agencies.
Regarding Hurricane Gustav, Magee said, “I was surprised by how much less abstract the language was that they were using.” He said that criticism of Katrina relief was one cause for the change.
“I have a little more confidence in them,” he said.
Milliken was also positive about the way the government dealt with Gustav.
“People try to learn from the mistakes of Hurricane Katrina, and they are definitely trying to do things differently this time.”
The research was sponsored by a grant from the Center for Catastrophe Preparedness Research at NYU in the wake of Hurricane Katrina in 2005.
In addition to Magee and Milliken, the study was authored by two NYU Students, Nancy Lam, a doctoral student in the management department at Stern, and Daniel Menezes, who graduated with a bachelor’s in Metropolitan Studies earlier this year.
Vanessa Liu is a contributing writer. E-mail her at university@nyunews.com.
CORRECTION: An earlier version of this story incorrectly spelled the name of hurricane Hanna. WSN regrets the error.
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