LEADERSHIP AND DECISION MAKING IN CASES OF UNCERTAINTY AND RISK - THE CASE OF THE EMERGING CORONAVIRUS (COVID-19) CRISIS

Abstract

Motivation/Background: The purpose of this paper is to shed light on leadership and decision-making in situations of uncertainty and risk-the case of the emerging coronavirus (COVID-19) crisis, as well as to give a systematic framework as a guide for leaders to deal with the COVID-19 and other sudden crises. Method: This paper is based on theoretical analytical methodology, were questions of the study are built, and then data were collected from previous research about study concepts. This helps in extracting lessons and principles that help researchers to answer study questions and build a methodological the framework. Results: The current COVID-19 crisis is a global sudden crisis that differs from previous crises in terms of its strength, effects, and speed, it strucks all health, economic, social and psychological aspects of life. It causes a challenge of supply chains pose to governments and organizations, accelerated transformation to virtual work, and brought cultural change at all levels. All this forced leaders to take quick and bold decisions in the absence of complete information and lack of transparency. Conclusions: The originality of this study stems from studying the new COVID-19 crisis that suddenly struck the world and confused the most powerful countries and institutions, as leaders stood unable to deal with this crisis and its destructive effects in various aspects of life. Research on dealing with this crisis is still incomplete and subject to modification and change. Therefore, studying this and coming up with a systematic framework increases originality and novelty of this study.