The Role of Decision‐maker in Crisis Management: A qualitative Study Using Grounded Theory (COVID‐19 Pandemic Crisis as A Model)

• Published date: 01 November 2020
• Author: Zeyad S. Al‐Dabbagh
• Date: 01 November 2020
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1002/pa.2186

ACADEMIC PAPER

The Role of Decision-maker in Crisis Management:

A qualitative Study Using Grounded Theory

(COVID-19 Pandemic Crisis as A Model)

Zeyad S. Al-Dabbagh

College of Political Science, University of

Mosul, Mosul, Iraq

Correspondence

Zeyad S. Al-Dabbagh, College of Political

Science, University of Mosul, Mosul, Iraq.

Email: z-psc@uomosul.edu.iq

The current study seeks to detect the role of decision-maker in crisis management,

and to reveal the crisis decision-making process its skills, strategies and stages, as

well as, to detecting crisis management. To achieve these aims, we used the

grounded theory approach as one of the qualitative research designs, and analyze

the data that collected from (15) decision-makers through in-depth interviews. The

results revealed that there are eight concepts that develop a broad theory of the cri-

sis decision-making process, they are (a) meaning of the decision, (b) meaning of the

crisis decision-making process, (c) stages of the crisis decision-making process,

(d) crisis decision-makers' response, (e) crisis management, (f) crisis decision-making

strategies, (g) crisis decision-making skills, and (h) the roles of decision-maker in crisis

management. From these findings, we generate a theory that explains the crisis

decision-making process and its skills and strategies, to benefit decision-makers in

making the decisions necessary to confront crises such as the COVID-19 pandemic

crisis. In light of the findings of the study, we need to pay attention to training

decision-makers in the decision-making process in times of crisis, as well as increasing

their awareness of the factors affecting crisis decision-making, as well as training

them on proactive thinking to save time, effort and money and reduce the severe

consequences of crises.

1|INTRODUCTION AND THEORETICAL

BACKGROUND

The current century is witnessing amazing developments and

changes resulting from t he information revolution and cultural ope n-

ness, and this marked all ar eas of life with the nature of radical trans-

formations. As a result ofthese developments and challenges, a

group of crises emerged, and they became part of the fabricof

human life in any society and a feature of contemporary life. The

need to deal with crises in the current era is the profound change in

science and technology, the pattern of consumption and patterns of

relationships between people, which requires new strategies, alter-

natives and administrative methods to deal with different realities of

life, and some have called our modern age as “century of crisis”as

the term crisis has became common term in our everyday language

such as economic crisis, social crisis, the education crisis, and other

crises (Zamili,2014).

A human's life has gone through many variables, circumstances,

and attitudes that evoke his motivation toward something at the

expense of other things, or makes him restricted by choosing an order

between a group of things or variables; for the process of voluntary or

forced selection, which takes place at the level of individuals, institu-

tions and even societies, as all sectors abound with daily and continu-

ous situations that actually require the selection of an option or an

alternative from all available and possible alternatives. It is known

administratively for decision-making.

Among the events witnessed in 2020 is the spread of the Corona

virus (COVID-19) by its rapid spread and the increase in the number

of infections and the number of deaths in all countries of the world.

As a result, the Director-General of the World Health Organization

Received: 29 April 2020Accepted: 11 May 2020

DOI: 10.1002/pa.2186

J Public Affairs. 2020;20:e2186.wileyonlinelibrary.com/journal/pa© 2020 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd1of11

https://doi.org/10.1002/pa.2186