State and citizen responsiveness in fighting a pandemic crisis: A systems thinking perspective

Abstract

Management scholars have recognized organizational responsiveness among the essential capabilities of social organizations. It becomes essential for a social change to occur during a crisis, where the uncertainty or environmental dynamism is high. However, a social change cannot be successful unless constituent subsystems of a social organization exhibit responsiveness. Using systems theory, we conceptualize ‘nation’ as a social system and examine its responsiveness towards environmental uncertainly, taking an example of the COVID‐19 pandemic. How can state and citizen community responsiveness help fight a pandemic crisis? We test these direct and moderating effects on data representing 14 countries. We perform a hierarchical regression analysis on the restructured, balanced country‐wise panel data. Our findings highlight the importance of state and community interaction effects in controlling pandemic growth. Accordingly, we claim that only a collaborative approach by citizen communities with the respective governments will enable handling an uncertain situation.

To wear or not to wear, was that the question? Understanding citizen responses to COVID‐19 crisis management in social media across Europe

“…The findings discussed in this study contribute significantly to our understanding of the interaction between authorities' crisis management and citizen responses (Bakshi et al, 2021;Sunder & Prashar, 2023). While comprehensive public authorities' crisis management measures may be vital for an effective pandemic response, they alone are insufficient to achieve the goal of controlling pandemic growth (Vigoda-Gadot et al, 2023;Chan et al, 2021).…”

“…Traditionally, the field has focused on top‐down responses, paying considerably less attention to public responses and citizen‐driven initiatives (Haeffele & Storr, 2020; Helsloot & Ruitenberg, 2004). Most studies in this field concentrate on the role and impact of governments, elite groups, and the interaction with market forces (e.g., Haeffele & Storr, 2020), whereas the role of citizens and their perspectives are largely overlooked Integrating a citizen perspective into the field becomes imperative to fully comprehend how citizens perceive and respond to crisis management, and the impact that their participation may have in future crises (Appleby‐Arnold et al, 2021; Lenz, 2024; Sunder & Prashar, 2023). This article adopts a citizen perspective and contributes with empirical insights about how citizens responded to the diverse and evolving crisis management strategies implemented in three different countries—Norway, Sweden and Italy—during the COVID‐19 pandemic.…”