MJAMR

Decision Making Is a Choice but an Impulse Decision May Not Be the Best Choice: A Case Study of Ugandan CEOs

Akampurira Sarah, Magala Muhammed


Abstract

This article examined the decision-making processes of chief executive officers operating within Ugandan private and public sector organizations, with a particular focus on the conditions under which impulsive decision-making emerged, the organizational contexts that facilitated or constrained such decisions, and the consequences of impulse-driven executive choices for organizational performance and stakeholder welfare. Drawing on semi-structured interviews with sixty-two CEOs drawn from diverse sectors including banking, manufacturing, telecommunications, agriculture, and public utilities, the study revealed that impulsive decision-making was both more prevalent and more consequential in the Ugandan corporate context than existing decision theory frameworks had predicted. The research identified a distinctive set of cultural, structural, and psychological factors that heightened the propensity for impulsive executive decision-making in Uganda, including high power distance organizational cultures, weak board governance, the personalization of organizational authority in executive figures, and the specific psychological pressures generated by Uganda's volatile economic and political environment. The findings suggested that while impulsive decisions occasionally produced positive outcomes through the exploitation of fleeting market opportunities, the systematic preference for speed over deliberation in executive decision-making had been associated with poor organizational performance, high staff turnover, financial mismanagement, and reputational damage across the organizations studied.

Keywords

Decision Making Choice and Impulse Decision
Metropolitan Journal of Academic Multidisciplinary Research

Cite This Article

Akampurira Sarah & Magala Muhammed (2026). Decision Making Is a Choice but an Impulse Decision May Not Be the Best Choice: A Case Study of Ugandan CEOs. Metropolitan Journal of Academic Multidisciplinary Research, 5(4). https://journals.miu.ac.ug/pages/article.php?article_id=556

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