Continuity of Operations and Organisational Resilience during the COVID-19 Pandemic: Lessons from City Governments in the US Northeast Region

Abstract

This study analyses the continuity of operations and the building of organizational resilience efforts in nine city governments from the Northeast region in the US during the COVID-19 pandemic. We find that city governments were able to keep internal operations and the delivery of public services, but only to some extent. Information technology was a key enabler for the implementation of teleworking and a hybrid model of public service delivery that expanded online services. Finally, although several lessons were learnt during this period, the extent to which city governments were able to build adaptive resilience is still an unanswered question.