East African Journal of Interdisciplinary Studies, 4(1), 2019 12 East African Journal of Interdisciplinary Studies eajis.eanso.org Volume 4, Issue 1, 2019 ISSN: 2835-4539 EAST AFRICAN NATURE & SCIENCE ORGANIZATION Original Article EFFECTIVENESS OF DECISION-MAKING APPROACHES BY ACADEMIC UNIT MANAGERS ON ACADEMICS PERFORMANCE IN PUBLIC UNIVERSITIES IN UGANDA Wilberforce Okongo 1 , Dr. David Onen 2 & Prof. Wilson Okaka 4 1 Kyambogo University, P.O. Box 1, Kyambogo, Uganda, okongo2000@gmail.com. 2 Makerere University, P.O. Box 7062, Kampala, Uganda, donenotoo@cees.mak.ac.ug. 3 Kyambogo University, P.O. Box 1, Kyambogo, Uganda, wokaka@kyu.ac.ug. Article history: Received: 09 Sep 2019 Accepted: 20 Sep 2019 Published: 10 Oct 2019 Keywords: Decision-Making Approaches, Work Performance, Democratic, Delegated Decision- Making, Public Universities ABSTRACT This study examined the effects of decision-making approaches (DMA) of academic unit managers on the work performance (WP) of academic staff in public universities in Uganda. The study was prompted by the persistent complaints and reports from key stakeholders about the deteriorating quality of teaching, research, and community engagements, despite management efforts to improve the working conditions of the staff in these institutions. This was a mixed-methods study that leaned more towards the quantitative research paradigm. Data were collected from a sample of 287 respondents using survey and interview methods. The collected data were analyzed with the use of appropriate descriptive and inferential statistics as well as the thematic content analysis method. The key study findings revealed, among others, that the use of the democratic decision-making approach had a more significant positive effect on the WP of the academic staff than the delegated and autocratic decision- making approaches. Specifically, the results showed that a unit increase in the use of democratic and delegated DMA yields 19.1% and 5% increases in the WP of academic staff respectively. It was concluded that the use of different DMA has varying effects on the WP of academic staff. Therefore, it was recommended that academic unit managers should be trained and equipped with skills in the use of decision-making approaches that are more inclusive, consultative, collective, and participatory in nature. INTRODUCTION Ideally, the success of any organization depends on the way its employees perform their duties. However, the work performance (WP) of any group of employees depends on several factors. The case of the decision-making approaches (DMA) that are used by academic unit managers in higher learning institutions is not an exception. In this study, the researchers investigated the effects of DMA of academic unit managers on the work performance of academic staff in public universities in Uganda. It was prompted by the persistent complaints and reports from key stakeholders about the