Although the question of what to teach and how to teach has received much attention from the literature, little was known about the way in which academics in teaching groups make decision on what and how to teach. This paper reports an analysis of variations in the decision-making approach to tertiary teaching through academics' practices of designing course syllabuses, teaching, and assessing student learning. The study was conducted in three Faculties of business administration of three Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) in Vietnam and three different patterns of decision-making approach to tertiary teaching, namely as (i) the Given Framework, (ii) the Closed Framework, and (iii) the Open Framework, were found.