This article draws attention to the social context and working methods in crisis management. Based on 1000 interviews with business leaders in Swedish small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), we analyze crisis management in practice and ask: What social contexts do business leaders use in crisis management, and what working methods do they rely on? Most companies in this study do not have any form of crisis group; rather, they deal with issues reactively as they occur. Few of the companies work continuously with a crisis plan and only slightly more than half of those that have crisis plans report that it has been helpful in dealing with the COVID-19 situation. The study concludes that Swedish SMEs seem reliant upon a process that has an emerging nature whereby decisions are largely based on gut feeling. However, the companies in our sample that experienced a significant revenue decline due to the COVID-19 situation report that they employ a more centralized and deductive approach with reports and documents as a basis for their work. The study contributes to a developed understanding of how crisis management works in practice.

中文翻译：

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危机管理作为 COVID-19 第一阶段中小企业的实践

本文提请注意危机管理中的社会背景和工作方法。基于对瑞典中小企业 (SME) 商业领袖的 1000 次访谈，我们分析了危机管理在实践中的作用，并提出了一个问题：商业领袖在危机管理中使用了哪些社会背景，他们依赖于哪些工作方法？本研究中的大多数公司都没有任何形式的危机组；相反，他们会在问题发生时被动地处理。很少有公司持续制定危机计划，只有略多于一半的公司报告说它有助于应对 COVID-19 局势。该研究得出的结论是，瑞典中小企业似乎依赖于一种具有新兴性质的过程，即决策主要基于直觉。然而，我们样本中因 COVID-19 情况而收入显着下降的公司报告称，他们采用更集中和推论的方法，将报告和文件作为工作的基础。该研究有助于加深对危机管理在实践中的运作方式的理解。