Interweaving the Strengths of Relationality and Hierarchy in Emergency Services: A First-Person Approach to Enhancing My Leadership Practice

In the contemporary Western world, where hierarchies prevail, it can be hard to imagine what alternative leadership models might look like. This notwithstanding, relational leadership models have existed for time immemorial across North America, rooted in Indigenous community practices. With over a decade of progressive leadership experience in the emergency services sector, I have consistently experienced and observed a misalignment between the relational connection that drew me to the field and the command-and-control structures I have had to navigate. When it has been acknowledged that the hierarchical structures fall short in daily operations and personnel leadership, and there has been a call for emergency services to move towards more relational leadership, why does progress on this front feel slow, if not altogether stagnant? The call to serve is inherently relational; for me, it was a way to contribute to my community and align with a purpose and values larger than myself. So why have I often found myself so relationally disconnected, even having to suppress relational tendencies at times to feel I fit the hierarchical mould? Further, while some may label or attempt to empirically prove one leadership model as superior, is there space to create a pluralist vision of leadership that honours the strengths of both hierarchical and relational approaches? The purpose of this first-person research was to examine how I might enhance my ability to leverage the strengths and benefits of both relational approaches and the hierarchical structure of emergency services in my leadership practice, specifically by drawing on Indigenous governance models, land-based community practices and through the use of arts-based methods. Reflective of the tensions that exist between paradigms at each the individual, institutional, and societal level, the objectives of this leadership inquiry were (a) to enhance my capacity to bring out the strengths and benefits of relational approaches and the hierarchical structure of emergency services within my leadership practice (first person); (b) to inspire potential post-thesis, organizational-focused initiatives within my organization or sector, based on my research findings and recommendations (second person); (c) to generate ideas that may be relevant to other leaders in my sector and beyond through generating examples of alternative first-person leadership models and approaches that interweave hierarchical and relational practices within the larger emergency services community (second person); and (d) to contribute insights to academic and practitioner discussions and literatures around how relational and hierarchical practices and models might be brought together in new ways, and in ways that centre Indigenous leadership theory and practice (third person). Appreciating the significance of relationality in many Indigenous cultures and the call to decolonize academic and organizational structures, I also sought, through this research, to enhance my leadership capacities and my understanding of how Indigenist approaches offer insights into achieving homeostasis between these two leadership practices. Keywords: hierarchy, relational leadership, Two-eyed Seeing, Two Row Wampum, leadership, emergency services, hand-knowing, whole-person presencing

Author dc:creator

• Barron, Jennifer

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Nelems, Rebeccah

• School of leadership studies

Language dc:language.iso

en_US

Identifier URI

https://doi.org/10.25316/IR-20993

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:null:10613/29466