Crisis Management and National Responses to COVID-19: Global Perspectives

The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic has caused devastating impacts on public health, the global economy, and society. This collection of articles aims to process the lessons learned from the responses to COVID-19 and understand the public management and governance implications. This symposium includes seven articles that address various aspects of the pandemic response. These seven articles suggested several important lessons learned: First, countries need to create supportive work environments for healthcare professionals to overcome the overwhelming stress and engage in innovative behaviors to meet the rapidly growing demand for healthcare services in a health crisis. Second, hybrid coordination structures are needed in response to transboundary crises. Exploring mechanisms and processes to better integrate network-based coordination with hierarchical structures is necessary. Third, digital governance must be carefully designed and implemented to facilitate crisis communication and coordination. Finally, the COVID-19 pandemic offers the international context for comparing the implementation of a diverse range of COVID-19 policies and evaluating their impacts.