Response of the Public Sector to COVID-19 With Organizational Design and Ad hoc Structure

Abstract

The public sector, like other socio-economic sectors, has been impacted by the pandemic COVID-19. Furthermore, regardless of their national, supranational, and international contexts or capacities, public sectors in almost every country were tasked with more than just coordinating society and economy, mitigating population health risks, and keeping economies afloat. The complexity and interconnectedness of various types of policies necessitates the adoption of new organisational models. This chapter investigates the public sector's challenges in turbulent times. It also describes how organisational design and architecture, other than the dominant new public management model complementary to new public governance model can provide viable, sustainable solutions as well as more democratic leadership and decision making. Based on the theoretical analysis and the methodologies of contingency and complexity theories, the chapter emphasizes the multi-governance model in mitigating the COVID-19 effects through a loose and organic organisational system instead of a bureaucracy.