Scholars in the area of management agree that decision making is both central and
fundamental to any organization. This is because the quality of decisions made would
influence the effectiveness of the managers and consequently, affect the success of the
whole organization. Indeed, this also happens in the educational management setting.
Drawing from an ongoing doctoral research which looked at the relationship between
managerial decision making styles and organizational effectiveness among deans of
Malaysian public universities, this article discusses the formulation of a conceptual
framework. The framework put forward in this paper is based on both literature and
a study investigating the relationship between managerial decision making styles and
organizational effectiveness among deans of Malaysian public universities. Second,
the paper also attempts to discuss the possible research issues that could justify the
development of the conceptual framework of the topic. Literature reveals that there are
potential links pointing to the relationships between the variables. However, as to date
there is little empirical scholarly research conducted in the educational management and
leadership setting concerning the variables discussed in this study.
Keywords: Decision making styles, decision making skills, organizational effectiveness,
deans
