Managing Pandemics—Demands, Resources, and Effective Behaviors Within Crisis Management Teams

Abstract

Pandemics, such as the COVID‐19 crisis, are very complex emergencies that can neither be handled by individuals nor by any single municipality, organization or even country alone. Such situations require multidisciplinary crisis management teams (CMTs) at different administrative levels. However, most existing CMTs are trained for rather local and temporary emergencies but not for international and long‐lasting crises. Moreover, CMT members in a pandemic face additional demands due to unknown characteristics of the disease and a highly volatile environment. To support and ensure the effectiveness of CMTs, we need to understand how CMT members can successfully cope with these multiple demands. Connecting teamwork research with the job demands and resources approach as starting framework, we conducted structured interviews and critical incident analyses with 144 members of various CMTs during the COVID‐19 pandemic. Content analyses revealed both perceived demands as well as perceived resources in CMTs. Moreover, structuring work processes, open, precise and regular communication, and anticipatory, goal‐oriented and fast problem solving were described as particularly effective behaviors in CMTs. We illustrate our findings in an integrated model and derive practical recommendations for the work and future training of CMTs.

Work‐Related Psychosocial Risk Factors and Coping Resources during the COVID‐19 Crisis

“…Setting the focus on leadership opens an interesting avenue for future investigations, especially given leaders’ impact on employees’ health and well‐being. Thielsch et al’s study (2021) on the demands, resources, and effective work strategies of crisis management teams can also inform us of how teamwork in general can be supported, and might thus be an interesting reference for those interested in team‐level processes. There is especially a lack of multilevel perspectives, linking macro‐events to organizational policies, human resource management strategies, as well as team‐ and individual‐level processes.…”

“…The task forces that are installed to manage the crisis situation have to deal with specific demands due to highly urgent, uncertain and volatile environments. In this regard, Thielsch, Röseler, Kirsch, Lamers, and Hertel (2021) developed a new model of crisis management teams (CMTs) under a pandemic by extending the job demands and resources perspective to team‐level processes. The psychosocial risks related to the pandemic are inevitable.…”

“…Applying the job demands‐resources perspective to the understanding of team‐level processes, Thielsch et al (2021) conducted a qualitative study to understand the nature and the effectiveness of crisis management teams (CMTs) under the COVID‐19 pandemic. CMTs are a specific type of team that perform difficult and highly responsible tasks, such as managing the impact of a global pandemic, which requires quick and appropriate operations in ambiguous, risky, and constantly changing environments.…”

Impact of crisis communication strategies on people’s attitudes toward behavioral guidelines regarding COVID-19 and on their trust in local officials

“…While behavioral measures have to be implemented and enforced at a local level, national government bodies are, of course, also an important source of information for citizens. In Germany -as in many other countries -the relationship between the different levels of government has shifted over time; at the beginning of the pandemic, there was some tension between the different local and national levels of government (Thielsch et al, 2021). Apparently, countries that managed the COVID-19 pandemic relatively successfully were able to account for the actual capacity for action at the different levels (Christensen and Laegreid, 2020).…”

“…We chose mayors because, as local officials, they are responsible for implementing governmental policies to protect the public and for overseeing the implementation of local decrees (such as mask mandates or restricting public events). Further, mayors have often led the local crisis management teams responsible for managing the pandemic response (Thielsch et al, 2021). As demonstrated by the actual responses of mayors in Italy ("'This is not a film'," 2020) and Germany ("Corona," 2020), large differences exist in the crisis communication styles employed.…”