Leadership traits in time of crisis: a study on the Malaysian Prime Minister facing the Pandemic

Leadership has received due attention in the literature as crises become more rampant in recent years. Most world leaders were caught off guard during the pandemic, forcing them to shut down the business and social activities to reduce infection. This study focuses on how a Malaysian leader, Muhyiddin Yassin, who became Prime Minister in March 2020, immediately declared a nationwide emergency and launched several drastic actions to combat COVID-19. He introduced the Movement Control Order (MCO) and other allied activities, thus evoking a mixed response from the public on those unprecedented measures. Trusting the decision made by the prime minister galvanized compliance from the public to stay at home, maintain social distance, wearing of masks to reduce the number of infections. The present study explores public perception towards the leadership traits of the Prime Minister in managing the severe public health crisis. It also examines how the personal characteristics of the Prime Minister affect the public's trust in addressing the problem effectively. We conducted a nationwide face-to-face survey in July involving 800 respondents who gave their answers to the 13 attributes provided to them. The study analysed the four dimensions of the traits. The prime minister's speeches, delivered during the second and third wave of the pandemic, were also examined to gain insight into his traits