The subject is the abridgement of a thesis for Doctorship, involving the process of decision-making in the Brazilian university, a work that was published in two articles. The thesis develops a qualitative method, in order to obtain a comprehensive view of the decision-making process and to explain the process itself, arriving at the conclusion that the organizational decision may be understood as a network of connections among the many factors which influence it, in the outcome expressing different reasonings, as well as an absence of reason. The first article deals with the problem under examination and with a review of the respective literature.Método qualitativo para se obter visão total do processo decisório na Universidade brasileira. Problema investigado e revisão da literatura.