Crisis management in public administration: bridging the gap between management and leadership

Abstract

The field of crisis management is characterized by two distinct literatures: management on the one hand, and leadership on the other. The aim of the work is to bridge the gap between theories of crisis management and crisis leadership. The work opens with a presentation of the main theories associated with the two fields and then moves on to the analysis of a practical case in the context of public administration organizations. Next, the outbreak and evolution of the covid19 pandemic have been analyzed by involving leaders and followers in data collection with the purpose to understand the behaviors that were effective in managing the crisis.