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This article details a qualitative descriptive case study of affective factors of effective decision-making of one local government organization in the United States of America. The specific problem was that many elected American local government representatives lack effective decision-making strategies. This research focus indicated a lack of qualitative research on the real-world experience of factors that were taken into consideration during decision-making within American local government organizations.

Using a local government organization in southwest Illinois, elected representatives were interviewed and observed. The interviews and observations surfaced how the representatives made decisions. Data were analyzed using manual coding and theming to determine themes and patterns.

The results produced six themes about factors, including emotional intelligence, which impacted decision-making. They are: (1) remembering the past, (2) communication and respect, (3) spurring economic growth and development, (4) fairness, (5) recognizing and removing emotions and bias and (6) accountability.

Being a single case study, this research is limited in generalization. The research was limited to the identification of current, real-world experience of elected local government representatives.

The findings of this research can be used to create more effective decision-making practices for local government organizations of similar size.

This is the first study to review, in-depth, the decision-making and emotional intelligence factors of local government organizations in the United States of America. The conceptual background, discussion, implications to local government organizations, limitations and recommendations for future studies are discussed.

The author lasted a whopping 10 months as a Site Manager for an authoritative micro-managing Executive Director that consistently went back and forth on decision-making. “Do this … I didn’t say to do that … Make decisions … Clear all decisions with me first …. Why are you asking me about making a decision?” Her head swung back and forth faster than watching a ping-pong tournament. Other department managers would go to her to vent their frustrations on the same exact issue with the Executive Director. So how do you manage an authoritative micro-manager? How do you deal with yo-yo decision-making? It wasn’t until after leaving the organization and recovering from the stress of the whole ordeal that she broke everything down and created a better solution than the one used. This lesson on leadership failure starts by detailing the 10 months of stress torture. The author endured with details about the types of leadership styles used, and what could have helped on an individual level. Even if a person is not the designated leader of the organization, she can still be the better example of how to lead. This lesson concludes with the outcome of her 10-month torture and how it made her a better leader today.