The COVID-19 Crisis Management : Male and Female Leaders’ Success Factors as Perceived by Educated Arabs

There has been numerous news headlines and reports in the western media highlighting the role of women leaders of New Zealand, Taiwan, Iceland, Finland, Norway, Denmark, and Germany in managing the COVID-19 crisis as opposed to countries ruled by male leaders of the USA, Brazil, Russia, Spain, Italy, and France. The literature showed limited studies investigating leaders’ efficiency in managing the COVID-19 crisis. This study aims to explore male and female leaders’ success factors in the COVID-19 crisis management as perceived by educated Arabs. Survey results showed that 68% of the participants said that female leaders were more efficient whereas 32% believe that it is a coincident and that there is no relationship between gender and effective crisis management. The first group stated that women leader success is due to their empathy and the way they communicated with their people. Their language of discourse was full of reassurance and confidence. Women have better administrative skills. They closed borders early and implemented strict safety precautions. They excelled in acting with resilience and displaying high integrity and honesty. On the other hand, the second group indicated that there are men leaders who succeeded in managing the Pandemic. It is not solely the leader’s decision. Both male and female leaders work with a team of advisors who have a role in decision making. The population size, citizens' commitment to health rules, the economic status, the healthcare budget and infrastructure, readiness of the health system to receive and treat patients, climate, whether it is a young or old society, and the rapid response from the state to the emergency played a role in managing the COVID-19 crisis. Recommendations for future research are given