A Case Study of Social Work Leadership in the Pandemic Intervention in Wuhan

Yu, Zhihong; Luo, Hai; Tan, Weijia; Niu, Liya

Social workers in Wuhan, China were among the first to respond to the public health crisis caused by Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) in early 2020. Social workers in Wuhan developed and implemented an effective interventional model integrating online and offline volunteers of multiple professions—the ‘4 + 1’ model—to support affected individuals in the process of battling the pandemic. Transformational social work leadership played a vital role in the widely adopted model in China, characterised by idealised influence—attributed (or charisma); idealised influence—behavioural; inspirational motivation; intellectual stimulation and individual consideration. Contextual performance is also discussed, followed by a discussion on why social work can play a leadership role in inter-disciplinary intervention in the pandemic crisis. The article concludes with the areas social workers can improve on for the betterment of leadership.