Juneau, Alaska’s Successful Response to COVID-19: A Case Study of Adaptive Leadership in a Complex System

• Author: James E. Powell,Robert W. Orttung,Sean Asikłuk Topkok,Hana Akselrod,Joseph Little,Peggy Wilcox
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1177/0160323X221136504
• Published date: 01 March 2023
• Date: 01 March 2023
• Subject Matter: Original Research General Interest Articles

https://doi.org/10.1177/0160323X221136504

State and Local Government Review

2023, Vol. 55(1) 41 –61

© The Author(s) 2022

Article reuse guidelines:

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DOI: 10.1177/0160323X221136504

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Original Research General Interest Article

Introduction

“It’s all consuming; there’s nothing we’re doing

that is unrelated to COVID-19.”

“[We] junked the rule book on the way we

normally do business.”

CBJ City Manager Rorie Watt

Beginning in early 2020, the novel coronavirus

(COVID-19) pandemic confronted every city in

the world, forcing mayors, city councils, and city

managers to act swiftly to protect their citizens

(Benton, Rissler, and Wagner 2020). The United

States’ response to the virus exposed the vulner-

abilities of a federal system that suffers from par-

tisan fractures (Kincaid and Leckrone 2020) and

1136504SLGXXX10.1177/0160323X221136504State and Local Government ReviewPowell et al.

research-article2022

1Alaska Coastal Rainforest Center, University of Alaska

Southeast, Juneau, AK, USA

2International Arctic Reseach Center, University of Alaska

Fairbanks, Fairbanks, AK, USA

3Elliott School of International Affairs, The George

Washington University, Washington, DC, USA

4Center for Cross-Cultural Studies, Indigenous Studies

Graduate Programs, University of Alaska Fairbanks,

Fairbanks, AK, USA

5Division of Infectious Diseases, School of Medicine &

Health Sciences, The George Washington University,

Washington, DC, USA

Juneau, Alaska’s Successful

Response to COVID-19: A Case

Study of Adaptive Leadership

in a Complex System

James E. Powell1,2 , Robert W. Orttung3,

Sean Asikłuk Topkok4, Hana Akselrod5,

Joseph Little6, and Peggy Wilcox7

Abstract

Juneau, Alaska, kept COVID-19 deaths lower than in other similar jurisdictions. We argue that

adaptive leadership—the early decisions and actions of Juneau’s leaders, effective communications,

and emergent new collaborative structures—in the context of municipal ownership of key

assets enabled Juneau’s success. The result of 61 interviews and follow-up research, this case

study contributes a better understanding of which institutional design, communication, and

collaborative factors mattered in responding to the pandemic. Adaptive leadership provides a

better explanation for Juneau’s success than alternatives that focus on its isolation, home-rule

status, and socio-economic structure.

Keywords

COVID-19, public health emergency response, local governance, complex systems, adaptive

leadership, Alaskan Native health care

6W. A. Franke College of Business, Northern Arizona

University, Flagstaff, USA

7Pardee RAND Graduate School, Santa Monica, CA, USA

Corresponding Author:

James E. Powell, Alaska Coastal Rainforest Center,

University of Alaska Southeast, 11066 Auke Lake Way,

Juneau, AK 99801, USA.

Email: jepowell@alaska.edu

42 State and Local Government Review 55(1)

distributes decision-making power among local,

state, and federal authorities, even during a

national health crisis that requires a targeted

response (Benton 2020; Haffajee and Mello

2020). At the outset of the pandemic, the dire

threat posed by COVID-19 demanded that local

governments adapt rapidly, instituting policies

and procedures without, for the most part, the

backing of state and national mandates (Wright

2021). Fortunately, many local governments

rose to the COVID-19 challenge, providing

leadership in the face of substantial revenue and

budget uncertainties (Dzigbede, Gehl, and

Willoughby 2020). Why were some cities able

to perform better than others?

While the pandemic sparked an explosion

of immediate analysis among public adminis-

tration scholars, more than two years after

the initial lockdowns, it is now possible to

answer some of the initial questions. What

kind of leadership is most effective and in

which specific local conditions (Turrini,

Cristofoli, and Valotti 2020; Weng et al.

2020)? What kind of communications pro-

vide the best compliance (Fu, Ma, and Wu

2020)? How can local government leaders

best overcome silos between emergency

response agencies and health care providers

(Wolf-Fordham 2020) (Figure 1)?

A small, isolated, coastal community, Juneau,

Alaska, stands out as a particularly successful

example of adaptive leadership addressing

COVID-19 within a complex system (Table 1).

First, the early decisions and actions of the City

and Borough of Juneau1 (CBJ) Assembly and

Manager created an administrative system that

facilitated making evidence-based decisions

and implementing them. Second, regular com-

munications by a trusted city manager ensured

that the population supported leadership actions.

Figure 1. Map of Southeast Alaska showing the Alaska Marine Highway (ferry service) routes to

communities. Juneau lacks access to the Alaskan and Canadian road system except via ferry.

Source: Alaska Marine Highway website at: https://dot.alaska.gov/amhs/route.shtml