Reviewing the Leadership Perspective for Managing Healthcare in the COVID-19 Pandemic

Introduction

Even though organizations are subject to crises regularly, the Covid-19 pandemic may be an exception due to its scope and concurrent effect on the health and well-being of employees and other stakeholders and its worldwide peculiarity and the impact on economics, eventually, organizational survival. Several key lessons can be learnt from this catastrophe in terms of executive leadership and governance (Mather, 2020; Bhat, 2021; Alam, 2021). To resolve the Covid-19 crisis difficulties, business leaders must take the initiative. A calamity of this magnitude will almost certainly transform the post-crisis financial and business landscape, as well as the new normal. The recovery and survival of an organization are influenced in part by economic, public health, and regulatory elements outside its control, e.g., state of the economy. However, the responses of its governance and leadership will significantly impact the outcome.

There are several horizons in which the required actions must be carried out, including respond, during which an organization encounters with the proximate effects and maintains endurance; recover, during which an organization picks up and reclaims its position; and reimagine, during which an organization foresees and equips for the next normal state (CPA Australia, 2020; Alam, 2021; Glenn et al., 2021). Recognizing that, regardless of how confronting or difficult the issue appears to be, leaders will be expected to make harsher judgments and move more quickly to succeed.

Because disasters and other extreme events have occurred frequently throughout history and civilizations, there is already a substantial amount of research on crisis management (Bundy et al., 2017; Buchanan & Denyer, 2013; Mather, 2020; Glenn et al., 2021). While this short reflective piece is prompted by research on governance and leadership in a crisis’s context, it is, more specifically, a thoughtful analysis of how leaders and their organizations respond to the crises and strategy for the new normal in the aftermath of the disaster. Leaders were defined in this article in a broader sense to include members of the executive board and directors on board (Brookes & Grint, 2010).

Due to advancements in science and technology, substantial advances in life expectancy and healthcare systems, and a relatively long era of international peace and political stability, the pandemic of Covid-19 has arisen as a sudden threat to many things we take for granted in our daily lives. The discovery of a novel coronavirus has raised crucial issues, not just about the virus itself but also about how governments in various nations responded to the outbreak of the virus in the first place. When we look back and ahead, we all question if leaders could have done something in a different way to aid in the fight against a pandemic of this scope in the first place.

In this light, resolving the challenge of Covid-19 emphasizes the crucial need for a potent public leadership, a form of collaborative leadership where local bodies and agencies work together to create shared value for the common good (Getha-Taylor et al., 2011; Brookes, 2011; Mather, 2020; Bhat, 2021). While some academics describe leaders as administrative officials who administer the government and non-profit organizations (Vogel et al., 2020; Van Wart, 2013), others define public leaders as elected political leaders who serve in their respective political parties (Van Wart, 2013; Ospina, 2017; Glenn et al., 2021). The stretch between political responsiveness as well as administrative responsibility, and the changing role of leadership in the context of growing cross-sector collaboration, are among the numerous competing demands placed on leaders who have been frequently highlighted in the literature (Jung et al., 2008; Kirlin, 1996; Vogel & Masal, 2015; Alam, 2021).