TY - JOUR
T1 - Managing through COVID-19
T2 - Reflections from city managers and lessons learned
AU - Bishu, Sebawit G.
AU - Camarena, Leonor
AU - Feeney, Mary K.
N1 - Publisher Copyright: © 2023 American Society for Public Administration.
PY - 2023/9/1
Y1 - 2023/9/1
N2 - Our research centers on the role of city managers in responding to the COVID-19 pandemic in the United States. We begin by asking: What was the experience of city managers during the COVID-19 pandemic? Drawing on interview data from 87 US city managers we identify four emergent themes: crisis management, organizational and leadership contexts, unintended outcomes, and administrative impacts. We then apply Comfort's (2007) four Cs—cognition, communication, coordination, and control—to the interview data. We find that cognition, communication, and coordination are critical to city managers experiences in crisis management and response. Control is largely related to organizational and leadership contexts and a key aspect in determining their reported success. We also find that city managers view unintended and administrative outcomes as a result of their crisis management process that reinforce their strategies. From our inductive analysis, we propose a Complex Disaster Response Framework of City Managers.
AB - Our research centers on the role of city managers in responding to the COVID-19 pandemic in the United States. We begin by asking: What was the experience of city managers during the COVID-19 pandemic? Drawing on interview data from 87 US city managers we identify four emergent themes: crisis management, organizational and leadership contexts, unintended outcomes, and administrative impacts. We then apply Comfort's (2007) four Cs—cognition, communication, coordination, and control—to the interview data. We find that cognition, communication, and coordination are critical to city managers experiences in crisis management and response. Control is largely related to organizational and leadership contexts and a key aspect in determining their reported success. We also find that city managers view unintended and administrative outcomes as a result of their crisis management process that reinforce their strategies. From our inductive analysis, we propose a Complex Disaster Response Framework of City Managers.
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85169476958&partnerID=8YFLogxK
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U2 - 10.1111/puar.13707
DO - 10.1111/puar.13707
M3 - Article
SN - 0033-3352
VL - 83
SP - 1367
EP - 1386
JO - Public Administration Review
JF - Public Administration Review
IS - 5
ER -