Effective Decision Making for Knowledge Development in Higher Education

Abstract

Making decisions is the most important task of university leaders or managers and it is often the most difficult task. This chapter offers a step-by-step decision-making procedure for solving complex problems. It outlines the concept of decision-making and processes for both public and private decision-making agendas, using different decision criteria and different types of information. This chapter also describes barriers to effective decision making and decisions that must be made in conditions of certainty and uncertainty. Using a descriptive and suggestive research design, multiple statistical procedures; the results revealed that the types, styles and barrier to decision making processes are significantly related to the poor quality management of higher education in Nigeria? It is therefore imperative that institutional leaders are thoughtful and precise decision makers. This study recommends that the process of decision making ought not to be reactionary, but systematically planned and swift as well as planning for the unanticipated and unintentional situations as they arise.

A Critical Review of Historical Analysis of Social Change in Nigeria from the Pre-Colonial To the Post-Colonial Period

“…Positive social change denotes desired growth and improvement in all or some societal institutions, including those related to culture, the economy, education, family, international affairs, law, population, politics, and religion, which inevitably improves conditions for both individuals and society. (Ololube 2011;Ololube, Dudafa, Uriah, and Agbor 2013). A negative social change, on the other hand, shows dysfunction in all or parts of social structures and organizations, which in turn undermines social and human development.…”

“…Every day is brand-new, just as every second is a fresh point in time. It was stated by the Greek philosopher Heraclitus in (Ololube et al, 2013) that one could not walk into the same river more than once. The river is different the second time around because water has flowed along it, and the individual has also undergone subtle changes.…”