myAIPMResearch: 3 Biases That Shaped CEOs’ Pandemic Response
Achim Schmitt , Katherine Xin and Robert Langan | Harvard Business Review
The Covid-19 pandemic has required leaders to make decisions under considerable pressure. Many CEOs have been acting as the “chief crisis officer” as they work to ensure their firm’s survival and to manage the physical, mental, and social well-being of their employees.
Because there is no road map for a crisis like Covid-19, CEOs have had to manage largely by relying on their existing skills and personality traits. We wanted to understand which decision-making biases they were bringing to the table and how those have impacted their decision-making.
Because China was weeks ahead of the rest of the world in experiencing Covid-19, we surveyed the CEOs of more than 500 Chinese firms during February and March of 2020. We focused on three areas: CEO background and firm characteristics, how CEOs responded to Covid-19’s spread, and their expectations for the post-pandemic future. Our research revealed three pairs of opposing biases. In what follows, we explain the managerial implications and offer ways for leaders to combat each.
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Research: 3 Biases That Shaped CEOs’ Pandemic Response, Achim Schmitt , Katherine Xin and Robert Langan, Harvard Business Review, 2020
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