Managing through COVID‐19: Reflections from city managers and lessons learned

• Published date: 01 September 2023
• Author: Sebawit G. Bishu,Leonor Camarena,Mary K. Feeney
• Date: 01 September 2023
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1111/puar.13707

SYMPOSIUM ARTICLE

Managing through COVID-19: Reflections from city managers

and lessons learned

Sebawit G. Bishu

1

| Leonor Camarena

2

| Mary K. Feeney

3

1

Evans School of Public Policy and Governance,

University of Washington, Seattle,

Washington, USA

2

Paul H. O’Neill School of Public and

Environmental Affairs, Indiana University,

Bloomington, Indiana, USA

3

School of Public Affairs, Arizona State

University, Phoenix, Arizona, USA

Correspondence

Sebawit G. Bishu, Evans School of Public Policy

and Governance, University of Washington,

4105 George Washington Lane Northeast,

Seattle, WA 98105, USA.

Email: sbishu@uw.edu

Abstract

Our research centers on the role of city managers in responding to the COVID-19

pandemic in the United States. We begin by asking: What was the experience of

city managers during the COVID-19 pandemic? Drawing on interview data from

87 US city managers we identify four emergent themes: crisis management, orga-

nizational and leadership contexts, unintended outcomes, and administrative

impacts. We then apply Comfort’s (2007) four Cs—cognition, communication,

coordination, and control—to the interview data. We find that cognition, commu-

nication, and coordination are critical to city managers experiences in crisis man-

agement and response. Control is largely related to organizational and leadership

contexts and a key aspect in determining their reported success. We also find that

city managers view unintended and administrative outcomes as a result of their

crisis management process that reinforce their strategies. From our inductive anal-

ysis, we propose a Complex Disaster Response Framework of City Managers.

Evidence for Practice

•Active learning, communication, and coordination were important aspects of

city managers’crisis management process during COVID-19 pandemic.

•Organizational and leadership contexts describe the extent to which city man-

agers exercised autonomy when responding to the COVID-19 pandemic crisis.

•City manager crisis management and response has had both unintended and

administrative outcomes with lasting impact on internal operations and

relationships.

INTRODUCTION

The COVID-19 pandemic is one of the most significant

and long-lasting public health crises in modern history. It

required immediate response from government to ensure

public health, manage travel and international borders,

interpret science into practice, and communicate and

reassure residents. COVID-19 has resulted in a complex

emergency, where there is excessive loss of life, damage

to society and the economy, disruption to social and

political institutions, and need for response across politi-

cal borders (Cutter, 2018). The crisis also created immedi-

ate shocks to the public sector workforce, which required

a shift to working from home while also managing emer-

gency response in the community. While emergency

management research has long noted the important role

that public sector leaders make in preparing for and

responding to emergencies, there are few examples of

government being asked to respond to a massive crisis

over years—a crisis that also reconstructed their own

internal working structures and culture. Governments at

all levels have been tasked with responding to a long-

term crisis. In the United States, local government, which

are typically charged with public health management and

implementation, faced new pressures, roles, and responsi-

bilities. While previous emergency management scholar-

ship describes how municipalities should prepare and

handle short term emergencies (Col, 2007; Gerber &

Robinson, 2009; Henstra, 2010; Somers & Svara, 2009), the

COVID-19 pandemic is proving to be a long-term man-

agement process that is forcing local governments to

make important decisions for their municipalities (inter-

nally and externally) during a complex disaster.

The emergency management literature states that

effective management during times of crises occur with a

bottom-up approach where local governments carry the

Received: 28 March 2022 Revised: 4 February 2023 Accepted: 27 July 2023

DOI: 10.1111/puar.13707

Public Admin Rev. 2023;83:1367–1386. wileyonlinelibrary.com/journal/puar © 2023 American Society for Public Administration. 1367

bulk of responsibilities (Henstra, 2010; Kapucu, 2008).

Administrative capacity, local preparedness, and the train-

ing of emergency personnel and designated managers

that are in charge of meta and environmental types of

disasters enable cities to effectively respond to crises

(Comfort, 2007; Robinson et al., 2013). Yet, recent scholar-

ship notes the critical role that non-emergency managers

play in emergency response (Xiang, 2021). The COVID-19

pandemic further highlights the necessity of understand-

ing how public agencies and managers not directly affili-

ated with emergency roles or emergency departments

respond to extreme events and complex disasters (Ansell

et al., 2020; Roberts, 2020; Van der Wal, 2020;

Xiang, 2021). Comfort (2007) notes that during extreme

events, management functions require changes in agency

interactions, culture, and operating styles. City managers

are at the heart of the changes in management functions

and therefore critical for understanding how COVID-19

pressures and responses have altered government.

City managers in municipal governments are responsi-

ble for implementing policies set by elected officials,

managing internal organizational operational changes,

and delivering vital municipal services to their city resi-

dents. City managers in council-manager form of govern-

ment have the autonomy to lead municipal operations,

this role is otherwise played by mayors in mayor-council

form of government. Hence, city managers are often the

point of contact and authority during an emergency.

Unlike other local government managers in the public

sector, city managers stand in a unique position where

they are expected to manage multiple stakeholders’inter-

ests and balance the political and the professional. For

example, some city managers are dependent on or lim-

ited by county and state governments, thus complicating

their authority and ability to act. The COVID-19 pandemic

not only activated city managers as chief responders to

the pandemic, but also as chief managers of city person-

nel over the longer term. Given the key role that city gov-

ernments play in emergency response (Henstra, 2010;Hu

et al., 2014; McGuire & Silvia, 2010) and because the pan-

demic disrupted local government operations, we focus

our research on city managers in the United States to bet-

ter understand what city managers thought worked well

and what did not. Specifically, we investigate how city

managers have responded to the COVID-19 pandemic,

managed change, sustained those changes over the

length of the crisis, and how they envision these changes

created resiliencies in the future.

This research is motivated by the question: What is

the experience of city managers during the COVID-19

pandemic crisis management? We draw on interview data

from 87 US city managers to assess their response and

change management during COVID-19. First, we discuss

the relevant emergency management literature noting

insights on individuals in non-emergency positions, such

as city managers. Second, we describe Comfort’s

(Comfort, 2007) four Cs—cognition, communication,

coordination, and control—and their relevance to our

research question: How did city managers across the

United States respond to COVID-19 crisis? From the

interview data with city managers, we identify situational

factors that influenced operations and managerial

responses and the implications and outcomes of those

activities that reinforced their responses. Third, we

describe the method and data collection strategy. Fourth,

we present our analysis in two parts (1) themes that

emerge from the interview data and (2) an application of

the four C’s to the four emergent themes. We then dis-

cuss the results and offer a framework for understanding

local government management and the role of city man-

agers during complex disasters.

COMPLEX DISASTERS AND CITY

MANAGEMENT

In the scholarly literature and practice, emergency man-

agement centers on hazard mitigation, preparedness,

response, and recovery (Waugh Jr & Streib, 2006). While

there is a great deal of research and practical training

focused on emergency management, there are times

when those least trained and prepared are called to

respond to emergency conditions. The COVID-19 pan-

demic, a complex disaster, is one of these cases. Complex

disasters are compounded events, the result of both natu-

ral and human-based emergencies that cascade as one

emergency leads to other issues (Cutter, 2018). The

COVID-19 pandemic thrust all aspects of the public sector

into an emergency, requiring political leaders, managers,

employees, and other stakeholders to deal with risk

avoidance, mitigation, and response. While emergency

management studies often center on understanding the

roles of first responders, emergency management special-

ists, and local, state, and federal agencies that need to

plan for and respond to risks, crises, and hazards

(Comfort, 2002; Gerber et al., 2005; Kapucu, 2006; Xiang

et al., 2021), the COVID-19 pandemic—as a complex

disaster affecting nearly all social, political, and economic

institutions—has required crisis management and

response from everyone over a much longer time period

than the typical disaster event (Roberts, 2020; Van der

Wal, 2020; Yang, 2020). Roberts (2020) uses the example

of the COVID-19 pandemic to highlight the importance of

high quality of decision-making from all government offi-

cials, especially at the local government level when pro-

viding emergency support.

Recent research highlights the need to understand

how public agencies not directly associated with emer-

gency management provide leadership during times of

crises (Ansell et al., 2020; Van der Wal, 2020;Xiang, 2021;

Yang, 2020). Resilient and robust governance capacity

comes from both emergency and non-emergency public

agencies, where coordination and response to crises are

expected to work seamlessly (Xiang, 2021; Yang, 2020). In

1368 MANAGING THROUGH COVID-19