Open AccessThe Onslaught of Crisis Leadership Advice: Sifting Through Popular Leadership Sources in the COVID-19 Era
Author(s) -
R. Tyler Spradley
Publication year - 2021
Publication title -
international crisis and risk communication conference
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
ISSN - 2576-9111
DOI - 10.30658/icrcc.2021.13
Subject(s) - advice (programming) , covid-19 , public relations , power (physics) , political science , crisis management , sociology , law , medicine , physics , disease , pathology , quantum mechanics , virology , outbreak , computer science , infectious disease (medical specialty) , programming language
This study critiques COVID-19 crisis leadership discourse in authoritative sources for leadership advice including Entrepreneur, Forbes, Fortune, Harvard Business Review, Harvard Business School’s COVID-19 Business Impact Center, and Real Leaders. Two central lines of inquiry drive this study: First, what are the pervasive practice-based recommendations typified in COVID-19 crisis leadership discourse? Second, whose interest does the COVID-19 crisis leadership discourse serve? Conclusions question the widespread practicality of advice and argue that advice functions to reassert the power dynamic of authoritative texts and super leaders over popular crisis leadership press. Furthermore, advice tends to promote command-and-control leadership with implications for taking advantage of the chaotic, vulnerable moments of crises to promote undemocratic change.