Crisis Management Indicators and Employee Performance in the COVID-19 Scenario in the Sultanate of Oman

Abstract

The COVID-19 outbreak has resulted in major changes to how various enterprises, including public institutions operate, altering the daily tasks and activities of personnel. The main purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of crisis management strategies on employee performance in Ministry of education quality department employees in Sultanate of Oman. These crisis management indicators are three in number (crisis signal detection, crisis preparation, and crisis containment) and serve as the independent variables for this study, while the dependent variable is employee performance. To meet the research objectives of this study, the researcher adopted quantitative method using the deductive approach and positivist philosophy in a cross-sectional time horizon and causal research design. A self-administered survey using a simple random sampling was conducted on employees, specifically supervisors, managers and other executives in all the branches of the quality department in Ministry of Education. This survey yielded 103 usable responses after coding and screening of the primary data. Correlation and multiple regression analyses were conducted to test the research hypotheses. The results showed that crisis signal detection, crisis preparation, and crisis containment were positively and significantly correlated with employee performance. By introducing an all-inclusive conceptual model of employee performance, this study builds on earlier research on the topic and makes significant contributions to the study of organisational behavior.