Proactive and Reactive Approach in Crisis Management: An Assessment on the Covid-19 Crisis

The Covid-19 pandemic is a major health crisis that has affected the whole world for about a year. This crisis, political, economic and psychological effects of which are very heavy, has left almost all countries, from the most developed countries to the most underdeveloped ones, desperate. In the present study, the struggle of the five countries (China, USA, Turkey, Germany, Italy) most affected by the Covid-19 pandemic was discussed in the context of crisis management. In the study, which aims to determine how the approach adopted by these countries is reflected in the crisis management process, current data and resources were scanned with the literature review method, and it was investigated what kind of crisis management approach these countries adopted and whether this approach leads them to success have been examined. As a result of the examination, it has been observed that the cases and death rates are lower in countries that have understood the severity of the pandemic since the day it emerged and have taken early measures accordingly, but the case and death rates are higher in countries that cannot understand the severity of the pandemic or cannot predict the coming crisis. As a result, it has been determined that countries trying to prevent the crisis with a proactive approach manage the pandemic crisis better, and countries that prefer a reactive crisis management approach in this process face greater crises at the point of coping with the pandemic.