ABSTRACT
Transformational leadership that transforms a specific system, diffuses leadership authority throughout the system, but this is done in a way that is intentional and collaborative. The transformational leadership literature focuses on how individual leaders can accomplish the changes within their organizations. The experience of American disaster response offers insight into the intergovernmental, multi-organizational, and multi-sector environment. The American disaster response system shows signs of missing the needed systemic change. Progress was made post-Katrina in the move from the National Response Plan (NRP) to the National Response Framework (NRF) that replaced it. The mechanism for response during NRP and also under NRF remains a revamped National Incident Management System (NIMS). A transformed and collaborative NIMS could work by providing the locus for intergovernmental and interorganizational contact. The internal organization at the national and state level must have their executives working in a transformative leadership fashion.
