A descriptive case study of effective decision-making of a local government organization in the United States of America

2020 ◽  
Vol 16 (3) ◽  
pp. 279-297
Author(s):  
Jennifer Capler
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Decision Making ◽  
Local Government ◽  
United States Of America ◽  
The United States ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Government Organizations ◽  
Effective Decision ◽  
Effective Decision Making

PurposeThis 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.Design/methodology/approachUsing 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.FindingsThe 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.Research limitations/implicationsBeing 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.Practical implicationsThe findings of this research can be used to create more effective decision-making practices for local government organizations of similar size.Originality/valueThis 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.

scholarly journals Incorporating Systems Thinking into Local Governments in the United States of America

2021 ◽  
Vol 2 (2) ◽  
pp. 22-29
Author(s):  
Jennifer Capler
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Decision Making ◽  
Local Government ◽  
Systems Thinking ◽  
United States Of America ◽  
Local Governments ◽  
Effective Communication ◽  
The United States ◽  
Participative Leadership ◽  
Government Organizations

This is an opinion-based review of other research work on systems thinking paradigms and the possible application to local governments within the United States of America. Systems thinking is a complex interaction of people to generate thoughts, concepts, and ideas for situations involving organizational processes and changes. Using systems thinking can encourage collaboration, participative leadership, and interpersonal relations, increasing organizational effectiveness. Local government organizations may benefit greatly from creating and using systems thinking, incorporating constituent input before making decisions. Taking current organizational theory and design and recognizing a knowledge gap, this specific opinion-based review of using systems thinking emphasizes the importance of maintaining leadership and effective communication, advantages and disadvantages of system thinking paradigms, and ethical considerations. As communities grow and diversity expands, local government organizations should also grow and expand with the changing demands of constituents and economic needs. My theory is that with the incorporation of systems thinking, local government representatives can increase the overall effectiveness of council meetings and decision-making. Keywords: Systems Thinking; Local Government Organizations; Effective Communication; Effective Decision-Making; Participative Leadership

Beerheide v Suthers: A Case Study Concerning Religion in Prisons in the USA

2005 ◽  
Vol 8 (36) ◽  
pp. 67-73
Author(s):  
Scot M Peterson
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Civil Society ◽  
United States Of America ◽  
Religious Beliefs ◽  
The United States ◽  
Religious Institution ◽  
The Usa ◽  
Kosher Food ◽  
Bible Reading

The penitentiary in the United States of America originated as a religious institution. Its roots lie in the belief that inmates could reform if they were given an opportunity to engage in reflection, prayer, Bible-reading and work, thus establishing a new personal foundation for functioning as productive members of the larger society. Not surprisingly, given American's predilection for maintaining a secular civil society, this original foundation for the prison eventually fell from favour, and American penological theories became more sociological or psychological in nature. The fact remains, however, that society in the United States is broadly religious, and prisons continue to address the religious beliefs of inmates and how to accommodate those beliefs in a penological setting. This comment provides a case study on this topic, based on littigation concerning the provision of kosher food to Orthodox inmates in the prisons in Colorado.

Designing a Business Analytics Culture in Organizations in India

2021 ◽  
pp. 670-678
Author(s):  
Tanushri Banerjee ◽  
Arindam Banerjee
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Decision Makers ◽  
Data Organization ◽  
Business Analytics ◽  
Domain Specific ◽  
Consumer Lending ◽  
Effective Decision ◽  
Effective Decision Making

There are several challenges faced by decision makers while deploying Business Analytics in their organization. There may not be one resolution approach that is suitable for creating a Business Analytics culture in all organizations. However, it is easy to perceive that most India-based organizations may have similar issues of data organization that may be impeding their progression in the field of Analytics. Based on their research, the authors have proposed a framework for adoption of Analytics in Indian firms in their book “Weaving Analytics for Effective Decision Making” by SAGE. They propose to use that model for explaining certain domain specific adoption of Business Analytics in organizations in India. They have used a case study of a Global Bank which is in the process of establishing its consumer lending USA operations, an offshore captive operation, in India to describe the process of building an Analytics team in an organization in India. Data processed using R has been added as screenshots for supporting the findings.

A Clash of Spacepowers

2020 ◽  
pp. 228-270
Author(s):  
Bleddyn E. Bowen
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
United States Of America ◽  
The United States ◽  
Pearl Harbor ◽  
Space Systems ◽  
Long Distance ◽  
Republic Of China ◽  
Critical Moment ◽  
Illustrative Application

Chapter 6’s illustrative application of the theory demonstrates how the propositions are instructive when critically applied a Taiwan war scenario. In this case, it demonstrates how spacepower can influence terrestrial considerations for battle, in particular with long-distance precision-strike warfare, or ‘anti-access/area denial’ (A2/AD) warfare in current military jargon. Two contrasting strategies are critiqued in the case study as equally valid possibilities – the all-out first strike ‘Space Pearl Harbor’ strategy and ‘Counterspace-in-Being’ strategy of keeping space strikes in reserve for a critical moment. These strategies are two possible options for both the United States of America and People’s Republic of China, with Taiwan also having many opportunities of its own to resist Chinese invasion from the mainland. Projecting support from celestial communications down to Earth from the cosmic coastline changes the calculations of concentration and dispersal for military forces on Earth, and understanding the thorny questions of how and when to strike against space systems is aided by an understanding of all seven propositions.

EU presidency will show up Romania’s peripheral status

2019 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Decision Making ◽  
The United States ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Political Warfare ◽  
The Eu ◽  
At Home

Significance The presidency will put Romania's isolation in the spotlight. It has no backers in the EU prepared to overlook its escalating retreat from democratic and reform commitments, and there is no sign that the United States is prepared to act as a counterweight. Impacts Romania is ill-prepared for the presidency while political warfare at home will absorb government energies. It is likely that real decision-making will reside in Brussels with Romania having no more than a ceremonial role. Dragnea’s hostility to Brussels makes a tough EU response likely in response to more creeping authoritarianism.

scholarly journals Decision-Making Enhancement in a Big Data Environment: Application of the K-Means Algorithm to Mixed Data

2019 ◽  
Vol 9 (4) ◽  
pp. 293-302
Author(s):  
Oded Koren ◽  
Carina Antonia Hallin ◽  
Nir Perel ◽  
Dror Bendet
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Big Data ◽  
Mixed Data ◽  
Systems Research ◽  
Information Systems Research ◽  
Effective Decision ◽  
Data Ecosystem ◽  
Effective Decision Making ◽  
Business Requirements

Abstract Big data research has become an important discipline in information systems research. However, the flood of data being generated on the Internet is increasingly unstructured and non-numeric in the form of images and texts. Thus, research indicates that there is an increasing need to develop more efficient algorithms for treating mixed data in big data for effective decision making. In this paper, we apply the classical K-means algorithm to both numeric and categorical attributes in big data platforms. We first present an algorithm that handles the problem of mixed data. We then use big data platforms to implement the algorithm, demonstrating its functionalities by applying the algorithm in a detailed case study. This provides us with a solid basis for performing more targeted profiling for decision making and research using big data. Consequently, the decision makers will be able to treat mixed data, numerical and categorical data, to explain and predict phenomena in the big data ecosystem. Our research includes a detailed end-to-end case study that presents an implementation of the suggested procedure. This demonstrates its capabilities and the advantages that allow it to improve the decision-making process by targeting organizations’ business requirements to a specific cluster[s]/profiles[s] based on the enhancement outcomes.

scholarly journals Crisis leadership during COVID-19: the role of governors in the United States

2020 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Abdul-Akeem Sadiq ◽  
Naim Kapucu ◽  
Qian Hu
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Decision Making ◽  
New York ◽  
Local Governments ◽  
The United States ◽  
Mitigation Strategies ◽  
Communication Strategy ◽  
Crisis Leadership ◽  
Mitigation Measures ◽  
Content Type

PurposeThe purpose of this viewpoint article is to understand crisis leadership during COVID-19 by examining the decision-making with respect to implementing COVID-19 mitigation measures, collaboration with stakeholders, and communication strategies of the governors of the States of California, Texas, Florida, and New York in the United States.Design/methodology/approachThis viewpoint article employs information from the extant literature on crisis leadership and secondary sources to understand the four governor's crisis leadership strategies during COVID-19.FindingsGovernors Gavin Newsom of California and Andrew Cuomo of New York made quicker decisions regarding implementing COVID-19 mitigation measures (e.g. shutting down the economy, mandating physical distancing, issuing stay-at-home orders, mandating wearing face covering in public and issuing a state of emergency) compared to Governors Greg Abbott of Texas and Ron DeSantis of Florida. In addition, all four governors collaborated with state and local governments, private entities, and nonprofits to address COVID-19. Finally, all four governors held some form of briefing on COVID-19 on a regular basis and used different media to get their information out to the public.Originality/valueThis viewpoint article uses decision-making regarding implementation of mitigation strategies, collaboration with stakeholders, and crisis communication strategy to understand governors' crisis leadership during COVID-19.

Arab gripes pose challenges for Syrian Kurds’ control

2019 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Decision Making ◽  
Saudi Arabia ◽  
The United States ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Power Dynamic ◽  
North East ◽  
The North ◽  
North Eastern ◽  
Underlying Causes

Subject Kurdish-Arab tensions in north-east Syria Significance Significant protests between April and June by Arab tribes in north-eastern Syria against Kurdish governance have subsided in north-eastern Syria after Saudi Arabia intervened to encourage de-escalation. However, the underlying causes, including grievances over economic distribution, heavy-handed security methods and a lack of Arab representation in decision-making, have not been resolved. Impacts A deterioration in cooperation between Arab tribes and the SDF may facilitate the operations of IS sleeper cells. The United States and partners will look for further ways to alleviate the concerns of Arab tribes in the area. Ankara and Damascus, which both have designs on the north-east, will play up protests to justify intervention. A mooted Turkish invasion of the border area could radically shift the power dynamic in the region.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document