Evaluation of Wildland Firefighter Leadership

There has been growing research evaluating hazardous occupations to gain a better understanding of how crisis leaders and followers, such as wildland firefighters make decisions in high-stress environments. In this study, wildland firefighters were examined to assess their decision-making skills using a wildland fire simulation computer game called the Networked Fire Chief (NFC). These results were compared against both the Multifactor Leadership Questionnaire and the Big Five personality traits using Saucier’s abbreviated Mini-Markers. Only a small sample of wildland firefighters was available to participate due to the intense 2017 fire season. Additional participants were recruited through CWU Sona system. Results indicated that leadership experience, rather than personality traits, were a significant predictor of transformational leadership in the wildland firefighter sample. Additionally, agreeableness, conscientiousness, and extraversion were significant predictors of transformational leadership.

Name thesis:degree_name

Master of Science (MS)

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Psychology

Year dc:date.available

2019

Author dc:creator

• Rose, Rebecca

Contributors dc:contributor

• Anthony Stahelski
• Mary Radeke
• Jeffrey Penick

• wildland firefighters
• personality
• leadership
• Human Factors Psychology
• Industrial and Organizational Psychology
• Leadership Studies

Language dc:language

English

Repository record dc:identifier

https://digitalcommons.cwu.edu/etd/1096

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:digitalcommons.cwu.edu:etd-2098