PurposeThis article aims to explore the tragic nature of crisis and identify managers’ decision-making processes and strategies when they are trapped by events beyond their understanding and control. In this article, the tragic is viewed as the collision of an overdetermined scenario perceived as inevitable, insurmountable and irreparable and the managers' strategies to free themselves from this scenario and divert its trajectory.Design/methodology/approachWe make a crossed literature review between crisis management and Greek tragedy as proposed by scholars in classical literature.FindingsWe make two theoretical contributions to the literature on crisis management. First, we articulate a set of research proposals into a model to explain how managers' decisions make the crisis tragic. Second, we enrich the field of crisis management by highlighting strategies in order to avoid them.Originality/valueWe use Greek tragedy, not as a metaphor to characterize the consequences of crises as the authors usually do, but as an analytical lens to explore their inexorable, insurmountable and irremediable nature and the decisions made by managers that would make crises tragic.

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This chapter aims to explore the tragic nature of pandemics in order to discover their inexorable, insurmountable, and irremediable nature and the strategies adopted by managers when they were trapped by this kind of event, which is beyond their control and understanding. Through accumulated knowledge of the Greek tragedy as proposed by scholars of classical literature philosophers, this chapter highlights unsuspected facets of pandemics and their management. Greek tragedy provides an opportunity to view pandemics under a new light, as it features characters grappling with forces beyond their control and conflicting dilemmas that can only be resolved by heart-breaking decisions and sacrifice, leading to despair and terror. This angle opens up new avenues for defining crises and creating a development model of a tragic crisis that highlights the behaviours and strategies of government decision-makers in times of pandemics in particular.