Covid Response: evaluating political leadership in the MENA region.
Abstract as pdf
Corresponding Author:
Ahmed Trabelssi
Mr Tunisia
ahmed0trabelssi@gmail.com
Author(s):
This scholarly work sought to investigate the leadership response to the COVID‐19 pandemic crisis in the MENA region based on the strategic leadership framework put forth by Boin, 't Hart, Stern and Sundelius. We seek to understand the contextual (institutional, administrative and political) factors explaining the differences in the stringency of measures and centralization\decentralization of response in the MENA region. What trade‐offs did public leaders implement between effectiveness and efficiency to successfully manage the crisis? We find that reliance on expertise plays out differently in centralized and decentralized structure, while a salient lesson drawn for practitioners is that there is more than one path to successful crisis leadership response contingent on institutional capacity, bureaucratic autonomy and political system. The article concludes with implications for leadership response during crises and practical lessons for crisis managers.
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