Abstract
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This study focused on the decision-making approaches (DMA) of the academic deans and departmental heads in tandem with the work performance of the academics in the Ugandan public universities. The research was prompted by persistent cases of complaints and reports from different key stakeholders regarding the deteriorating quality of teaching, research, and community engagement in public universities in Uganda. The researcher hypothesized that the problem could have been gaps emerging from the types of decision-making approaches used by the academic deans and departmental heads. As a result, the research was approached from the positivist research paradigm with a focus on the pragmatic philosophical approach in which both the quantitative and qualitative data were triangulated from 325 respondents with the use of questionnaire survey and in-depth interview methods. The study examined the effects of the delegated decision-making approach of the academic deans and departmental heads on the work performance of the academics in selected public universities in Uganda. A systematic random sampling strategy was used to administer the questionnaires to the target respondents. The data obtained was analyzed and presented with the aid of descriptive statistical techniques (tables, percentages & histograms), inferential statistical techniques (Student T-test, Pearson’s correlation, ANOVA & regression), and content analysis methods. The study findings revealed that low and high work performance had a direct bearing on the type of DMA used by academic deans and departmental heads in Uganda. The study concluded that the kind of DMA academic units managers employ when interacting with their institutional academic staff has a direct effect on how the academics perform their routine work. Thus, the study recommended that academic deans and departmental heads who are concerned with the decision-making process should employ more often delegated decision-making approaches at the workplace because it has a significant positive correlation with the work performance of the academic staff.