Measuring a leader's ability to identify and avert crisis

Leaders often have influence over the impact of pending crises by either preventing or minimizing the crisis (Pearson and Mitroff, 1993; Bonvillian, 2013).  With crisis looming just around the corner, a leader’s ability to identify, avert, and manage a crisis has become a fundamental element in organizational sustainability.  Yet, most literature on crisis is focused in the field of communication or crisis management during the actual event.  Wooten and James (2008) provide a conceptual model that describes leadership competencies in each of the five stages of crisis management.  The development of the crisis identification and aversion instrument was to operationalize the Wooten and James (2008) conceptual model with a focus only on the pre-crisis stages of crisis management competencies.  The crisis identification and aversion instrument has been validated through item reduction and content validation through the use of a Delphi panel of experts, item evaluation through the use of a large sample and factor analysis and assessment of construct validity.  The validated instrument measures a leader’s ability to identify and avert crisis by measuring three competencies: sensemaking, participatory management, and resourcefulness.  Each scale has high internal consistency.