Participation in Decision Making

Abstract

An analysis of decision‐making procedures and managerial styles of department heads in an academic institution is used to test the contingency model of managerial leadership. The procedures and styles of thirty academic heads are compared with those reported in other studies of managers in private enterprises and public bureaucracies. In both the academic and non‐academic situations, decisions and styles range over autocratic, participatory and delegative approaches. Evidence is put forward that the academic heads are, on average, as effective as managers in the other sectors but that they tend to use participatory and power‐sharing procedures more than their counterparts in private industry and public service. The contingency theory of managerial leadership seems therefore to be supported by this study.