Obstacles to Effective Management Decision Making in the Economic Community of West African States

Poor management decisions can have a negative impact on organizations, particularly when organization leaders make decisions based on personal interests that do not reflect stakeholders’ interests. The poor quality of some decisions made historically by Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) leaders has adversely affected stakeholders. The purpose of this qualitative case study was to identify the obstacles to making effective management decisions in ECOWAS. The conceptual framework was a combination of stakeholder theory, the theory of organizational framing for decision-making, and ethical leadership theory. Interviews of 10 former and current senior managers of ECOWAS provided the primary study data. Constant comparative analysis and Yin’s qualitative case study data analysis approach were used to analyze the data. Seven key themes emerged regarding obstacles that hinder the organization’s ability to fulfill its mission. The recommendations of the study participants to address these challenges, if implemented, could lead to improvements that help ECOWAS achieve its primary goal of regional economic integration, development, and stability for more than 400 million African citizens.