Dynamic Capabilities, COVID-19, and Public Sector Death Management: Introducing the Dirty Work Micro-Foundational Capability

During the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, public servants globally were faced with resource scarcity, ever-changing science, and stalled global supply chains. Like healthcare counterparts, deathcare public managers had to adapt to unknowns, including body storage issues, personnel safety when handling potentially virulent bodies, and mental health struggles from excess deaths. Based on interviews with 30 public sector death managers throughout the U.S., we employ the dynamic capabilities approach to understand how these managers responded to the ongoing pandemic, challenges they faced, and the introduction of a new dynamic capability: dirty work knowledge. Implications for the study reach beyond deathcare and into public service dirty work and stigma.