Confronting the big challenges of our time: making a difference during and after COVID-19

Abstract

This article explores key challenges emanating from COVID-19 and how public management and administration research can contribute to addressing them. To do this I discuss the 'big questions' debate and then sketch two big thematic challenges. In articulating these, I point to interconnections across various levels of analysis and argue we need to work across a range of boundaries and get more comfortable with complexity. My key argument being that both during and in the aftermath of a catastrophic global pandemic, it is at the intersections, not in silos, that we are likely to move forward intellectually and practically.

Science Mapping of the Global Knowledge Base on Management, Leadership, and Administration Related to COVID-19 for Promoting the Sustainability of Scientific Research

“…According to Davis [36], COVID-19 has led to a significantly deep level of crisis that has changed global history. The strategic management approaches adopted by both countries and institutions and the leadership styles that have developed accordingly in each case have ensured that some countries and institutions have remained one step ahead of their competitors or peers [37]. As a result, the importance of management, leadership, and administration concepts have increased even more at the national and institutional level during the pandemic.…”

Responding to information asymmetry in crisis situations: innovation in the time of the COVID-19 pandemic

“…Our study addresses this gap by drawing on information processing theory (IPT), an under-explored (but powerful) theoretical lens for exploring how PSOs address information asymmetry in black swan events to drive innovative decision-making. Thus, this paper contributes to calls for further research to understand the impact of turbulent events (such as black swans) on effective public service governance (Ansell and Torfing 2020;O'Flynn 2020) by investigating the following research question: How do public service organizations innovate to address information asymmetry and drive decision-making in a black swan (knowable unknown) event such as We examined the UK healthcare sector, a crucial sector tackling COVID-19, that throughout the pandemic has been confronted with information asymmetry (Flanagan and Collins 2020). Within healthcare organizations, the importance of effective information and knowledge management was apparent as pharmaceutical companies searched databases for relevant treatments, and medical device manufacturers struggled with processing requests as demand for their products increased exponentially (BSI 2021, 21).…”

“…Here, managers need to be swift decision-makers and embrace organizational innovation -undertake new-to-the-organization management activities to motivate employees, coordinate activities (internally and with other organizations), and use, gather and distribute relevant information (Damanpour, Walker, and Avellaneda 2009). This is especially challenging for public service organizations (PSOs), which are government-owned and face additional burdens of navigating, for instance, regulatory frameworks, public safety standards, and often hierarchical, siloed, and bureaucratic processes that may hinder rapid and effective responses (O'Flynn 2020).…”

How effective have localised community actions and targeted messaging about policy decisions been?

“…There is an underlying objective of enhancing community resilience to all types of major catastrophes (Himes-Cornell et al, 2018). (Khan et al, 2008, p. 47) Disaster Management Academics across the range of public administration literature are exploring the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on institutions, management and governance (Capano et al, 2020;Dunlop et al, 2020;Henrickson, 2020;O'Flynn, 2020).…”