Brief RESPONSE TO THE COVID 19 CRISIS DIFFERENCES BETWEEN FEMALE AND MALE LED COMPANIES IN THREE INCOME GROUPS
RESPONSE TO THE COVID 19 CRISIS: DIFFERENCES BETWEEN FEMALE AND MALELED COMPANIES IN THREE INCOME GROUPS AUTHORS XUE NING, JIBAN KHUNTIA, AND DAWN GREGG INTRODUCTION Many organizations have asked their employees to work remotely to maintain social distancing during the COVID 19 pandemic. The scale and impacts of mandatory teleworking are unprecedented. According to Talentlyft1, only 7% of US workers (primarily managers) worked from home regularly before COVID 19, but this increased to 62% of US employees working from home during the pandemic. This increase was driven by lockdown rules which required many companies to close their physical businesses to confine the pandemic. The restrictions placed on face to face interaction also pushed many companies to move their business to online sales. For example, a survey 2 by TD Bank's Restaurant Franchise Finance Group shows that 72% of franchisees have enhanced their digital ordering capabilities in response to the needs in the COVID 19 era. Both remote working and transformation to online sales supported business continuity during the COVID 19 crisis. Like the COVID 19 pandemic, worldwide crises can lead to significant financial disruptions as many companies may not have well prepared plans that allow them to adapt to the sudden changes in their industries. Many, but not all, companies respond to these disruptions with employee furloughs and layoffs3. How can some companies achieve business continuity while also acting socially responsible during a crisis while others cannot? Researchers indicated that women leaders are more likely to do better than male leaders in a crisis4. Studies show that during the COVID 19 pandemic, international female leaders are more resilient and are doing better in uncertain times5. With data from 8,755