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Managing through Covid ‐19

Reflections from city managers and lessons learned

Bibliographic Data

ID10394133
AuthorsSebawit Bishu (0000-0002-7157-7769, Evans School of Public Policy and Governance University of Washington Seattle Washington USA), Leonor Camarena (0000-0002-7211-4395, Paul H. O'Neill School of Public and Environmental Affairs Indiana University Bloomington Indiana USA), Megan Feeney (0000-0001-6850-1985, School of Public Affairs Arizona State University Phoenix Arizona USA)
Year2023
Volume83
Issue5
Pages1367-1386
Publication date2023-08-03
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenuePublic Administration Review (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0033-3352 • E-ISSN: 1540-6210
PublisherWiley (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1111/puar.13707
OpenAlexW4385550627
LanguageEN
Citations received3
References cited38

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

Business · Cognition · Control (management · Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19 · Crisis communication · Crisis management · Economics · Management · Pandemic · Political science · Process (computing · Public relations · Unintended consequences · Disaster Management and Resilience · Psychology · Public Relations and Crisis Communication

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Unique citing works3
Citations per year3
Citation span2025 - 2026 (2)
Citation velocitycurrent
Highly citedNo
Citation typesNeutral: 3
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