Six division chairpersons at Central Virginia Community College participated in a study designed to develop a problem situation set which can be used to examine academic managers' preferred decision processes; to identify the existing preferred decision processes of chairpersons within the community college setting; and to ascertain how problem situation attributes influence chairpersons' willingness to share the decision process with subordinates. The study participants responded to a 30-item problem situation set, some of which critically involved subordinates in the decision-making process. Subordinate cooperation was less crucial in other problems. Regardless of the problem attributes, chairpersons preferred involving subordinates in problem-solving. They chose decision processes that required subordinate input in about 80% of the problem situations, 63% in consultative style and 17% where chairpersons were willing to adopt and implement any solutions that had support of the entire group. It was shown feasible to develop a set of problem situations which can be used in future studies to examine community college chairpersons' decision-making behaviors. (TR)