Impact of Terrorism, Insurgency, and Other Human-caused Catastrophes on Pivotal National Leaders’ Vision Statements

Abstract

Vision statements articulated by seven pivotal national leaders before and after a catastrophe were examined for changes in moral reasoning stage, moral reasoning orientation, explanatory style, and rumination. Established two-stage structured content analysis methods were used and a perspective of shared leadership. Five leaders showed no significant change in moral reasoning stage but two showed a statistically significant reduction following overt attack on their homeland. After a catastrophe, six showed significant change in moral reasoning orientation, four showed less positive or negative explanatory style, and all seven showed high rumination. From an organizational systems perspective, an impact of human-caused catastrophe was adjustment of these four variables in pivotal national leaders' vision statements as if they are systems levers.