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The language of leadership in a deadly pandemic

Craig, R; Amernic, J

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Authors

J Amernic



Abstract

In early May 2020, when approximately 265,000 deaths had been attributed to the COVID-19 virus across the world, many countries were in various stages of lockdown, unemployment was increasing rapidly and most employees who had jobs were working remotely. Faced with the initial signs of an emerging health and economic catastrophe, how was language used by prominent leaders to communicate as the COVID-19 pandemic progressed? In the early months of the pandemic, some leaders used their communications with stakeholders to exercise accountability, effect transparency and develop a “tone at the top” intended to promote trust. Some well-known corporate CEOs used language effectively, speaking and writing with candor, compassion and positivity to encourage followers to have confidence in their actions in a time of crisis. But this pandemic, with its “known unknowns” and its “unknown unknowns” made uniformed positivity – often in defiance of expert medical knowledge – a potentially compromising approach. As the virulence of the virus became apparent and the death toll grew, uniformed optimism was clearly inappropriate.

Citation

Craig, R., & Amernic, J. (2020). The language of leadership in a deadly pandemic. Strategy and Leadership, 48(5), 41-47. https://doi.org/10.1108/sl-05-2020-0068

Journal Article Type Article
Acceptance Date Jun 24, 2020
Online Publication Date Jul 15, 2020
Publication Date 2020
Deposit Date Jun 25, 2020
Publicly Available Date Mar 29, 2024
Journal Strategy and Leadership
Publisher Emerald
Peer Reviewed Peer Reviewed
Volume 48
Issue 5
Pages 41-47
DOI https://doi.org/10.1108/sl-05-2020-0068
Public URL https://durham-repository.worktribe.com/output/1267885

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Publisher Licence URL
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/

Copyright Statement
This article is made available under a Creative Commons Attribution Non-commercial International Licence 4.0 (CC BY-NC 4.0) and any reuse must be in accordance with the terms outlined by the licence.




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