ACADEMIA Letters One of The Things That COVID-19 Remind to Us: The Importance of Crisis Management Şerafettin Erten, University of Usak Everything changes and transforms over time: nature, people, organization, structures, etc. There are basically two actors that direct this movement: the first is nature and the second is humanity. As long as the process of change and transformation proceeds predictably and normally, there is no problem. However, in the process, both the destructive power of nature and the desires, demands, ambitions, and activities of human beings cause some abnormalities and breaking points (Putra, 2020). So, crises express to these abnormalities, breaking points and situations where the level of awareness is at the top. Crises can occour in many different fields as social, economic, political, technological, etc., and also at a wide variety of levels including global, regional, national, organizational and individual. While mostly sudden and unexpected events, symptoms can be seen in the pre-crisis period in some cases (Sapriel, 2003). Crises are highly complex processes and they arise from a combination of many reasons. However, no matter what form and level they occur, they must be managed. Because crises affect all other fields and levels with the negative externalities they create (Mitroff, 1987). When the crisis situations experienced in the world in the recent period analyzed- 2009 H1N1 epidemic, 2010 Iceland volcanic eruption, 2011 Tohoku earthquake, etc. - it is observed that there are important differences from those in the past. These have been unexpectedly larger crises than those experienced before. They are new or unprecedented events in their structure and effects. They have had an unusual composition, and their effects have reached beyond boundaries. New-generation crises bring deep uncertainties, strain government structures and increase tensions between the public and private sectors (Ansell, Boin, & Keller, 2010; Baubion, 2013). Academia Letters, July 2021 ©2021 by the author — Open Access — Distributed under CC BY 4.0 Corresponding Author: Şerafettin Erten, serafettin.erten@usak.edu.tr Citation: Erten, Ş. (2021). One of The Things That COVID-19 Remind to Us: The Importance of Crisis Management. Academia Letters, Article 2188. https://doi.org/10.20935/AL2188. 1 The COVID-19 epidemic that we are in is an example of such a crisis. COVID-19, since the first case occurred on December 08, 2019, up till now (06 February 2021) has infected more than 106 million people worldwide and caused more than 2.3 million deaths. The virus spread to the world in a short time and turned into a global health crisis. COVID-19 has not only had an impact on people’s lives, families, and communities but created negative externalities in many areas like is economic, social, political, etc. (Deloitte, 2020). Although all the effects of COVID-19 are not yet known clearly, according to IMF director Kristalina Georgieva (2020), this crisis will be more severe than the 1930 Great Depression due to the consequences. The crisis naturally primarily affected the health sector. The high rate of spread of the virus has rapidly increased the number of patients and made the provision of healthcare services difficult. Parallel to this, governments’ health expenditures have also increased. Another item that increased in the government’s expenditures was social aids. This situation places an additional financial burden on countries’ budgets. Curfews, which continue today, have been imposed to prevent the spread of the virus. Prohibitions had brought many activities related to social life to a standstill. The decrease in demand, production downturn, increase in unemployment, and shrinkage of per capita income and economies are other important dimensions (Haleem, Javaid, & Vaishya, 2020; World Bank, 2020). In terms of its effects, the COVID-19 Pandemic was caused by questioning of policy decisions, approaches to crises, and crisis management systems of all countries and governments, notably health systems and policies. First of all, it has been revealed that the crisis management systems of countries are not prepared for such a crisis on a global scale. Although each country manages the crisis under its own conditions, it is observed that most of them do not have a crisis management system and the existing ones are insufficient. Moreover, it is seen that the fact that crises can create unforeseen negative externalities is neglected. The success of crisis management systems is directly proportionate to the financial resources allocated. However, as in almost every field, in the COVID-19 crisis, the distinction between developed countries and others was once again emerged. It is observed that developed countries provide better financial support to their citizens especially in terms of the economic consequences of the crisis. Most of the citizens who live in underdeveloped and developing countries are deprived of such support. Probably this will lead to other and different national crises in the future. In crisis situations, the aim is to prevent the crisis before it emerges, if it does not happen, to overcome it with the least damage and, if possible, to turn it into an opportunity. In this respect, the policies to be developed during the crisis should also cover the post-crisis period and have a long-term strategy (Hamidovic, 2012; Kash & Darling, 1998). However, it seems Academia Letters, July 2021 ©2021 by the author — Open Access — Distributed under CC BY 4.0 Corresponding Author: Şerafettin Erten, serafettin.erten@usak.edu.tr Citation: Erten, Ş. (2021). One of The Things That COVID-19 Remind to Us: The Importance of Crisis Management. Academia Letters, Article 2188. https://doi.org/10.20935/AL2188. 2 that most governments are trying to save the day. One of the important consequences of the COVID-19 crisis is that crisis management is directly related to fundamental rights and liberties. Health is a universal right. A large number of people are deprived of both the treatment and the vaccine developed to protect against the virus. In addition, the transparency and reliability of crisis management processes are very important in terms of the use and protection of fundamental rights and liberties. But, just as in the economic field, we face global injustice in this field too. In the global world, being alone is no longer possible. Countries are now more interdependent, more dependent on each other. Therefore, the vulnerability levels of countries regarding the crisis situations have also increased. Besides, whatever the reasons are, it is observed that the number and frequency of crises both nationally and globally have increased and they have become bigger and more damaging. In such a world, one of the main duties of governments is to get their citizens out of any crisis situation with the least damage. The way to achieve this is to establish effective, holistic and proactive crisis management systems. In this context, COVID-19 has once again reminded us how important crisis management is for countries. References Ansell, C., Boin, A., & Keller, A. (2010). Managing transboundary crises: Identifying the building blocks of an effective response system. Journal of Contingencies and Crisis Management, 18(4), 195-207. Baubion, C. (2013). OECD risk management:Strategic crisis management. OECD. Deloitte. (2020). 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One of The Things That COVID-19 Remind to Us: The Importance of Crisis Management. Academia Letters, Article 2188. https://doi.org/10.20935/AL2188. 3 Kash, T. J., & Darling, J. R. (1998). Crisis management: prevention, diagnosis and intervention. Leadership & Organization Development Journal, 19(4), 179-186. Mitroff, I. I. (1987). Effective crisis management. The Academy of Management EXECUTIVE, 1(3), 283-292. Putra, F. (2009). Crisis management in public administration. Planning Forum Journal Of Community and Regional Planning, 13/14, 152-177. Sapriel, C. (2003). Effective crisis management: Tools and best practice for the new millennium. Journal of Communication Management, 7(4), 1-8. World Bank. (2020). Global economic prospects, June 2020. Washington, DC: World Bank. doi:0.1596/978-1-4648-1553-9. Academia Letters, July 2021 ©2021 by the author — Open Access — Distributed under CC BY 4.0 Corresponding Author: Şerafettin Erten, serafettin.erten@usak.edu.tr Citation: Erten, Ş. (2021). One of The Things That COVID-19 Remind to Us: The Importance of Crisis Management. Academia Letters, Article 2188. https://doi.org/10.20935/AL2188. 4