The Family Decision-Making Process and Consumer Behavior - Term Paper Example

Family Decision Making and Theories of Consumer Behavior Introduction Decision-making is making a choice between a set of alternatives. Group or family decision-making entails an open opinions or reactions and articulacy among family members, where participants in the discussion agree and disagree, and negotiates in turns to resolve the differences (Hepworth, 2010: 260). Every participant in the discussion should be able to disclose his or her thinking and feelings without fear. This paper will discuss the family decision-making process and consumer behavior, acknowledge the difference between individual and family or group decision-making processes, suggest the possible steps to resolving the issue of decision-making, and provide recommendations to consumer theory. This paper will also highlight the lessons learned by the furniture retailers. The paper is broken down into introduction, body, conclusions, recommendations, references and recommendations. On the other hand, consumer behavior involves one’s decisions with respect to acquirement, consumption, and disposition of activities, goods and services, experiences and ideas, and people by decision-making elements (Hoyer, and Macinnis, 2008:3). In relation to consumer behavior, decision-making involves choosing to achieve the best good, service, activity, or experiences. Bradford family really had a hard moment in terms of decision-making. They wanted to get themselves the best home, with enough accommodation for their growing family future. They were highly challenged due to lack of capital and neither of them; either the husband or the wife was able to decide the best way to work out the problem. In my opinion, I feel the only way Mr. and Mrs. Bradford was to first postpone the purchase of the new home in order to allow accumulation of enough capital just for several months or years, then purchase all what they needed in their new home after getting enough funds with them. This decision through delaying would result to realization of more accumulated funds, enough for the said purchase. Family decision-making Family decision-making involves a series of domestic discussions at family level, to achieve common ideas that are to do with whole-family life, in contrast to ideas concerned with individual family members. These decisions normally affect several people or members of the family (Butler, Robinson, and Scanlan, 2005: 8). In our case, the Bradford’s family intents to move from a two bedroom flat that has no garden, to a three-bedroom house, which possibly has a small garden. Bradford family's planned move was because they had a son and therefore they needed more space for their growing family. This being their first time to buy a home, Bradford visited IKEA to survey what they can afford. The decision implementation needed millions of dollars to be accomplished, but the budget does not allow Mr. and Mrs. Bradford to make rental payments, purchase furniture for their new home and more, the living area for entertaining their friends (visitors). This has actually created a decision-making. In my opinion, the Bradford postponed the purchase of the new home to first accumulate money for several months or years due to shortage of capital. Taking a tour in the theoretical foundations in decision-making, there are three typical risk measures on which consequent decision-making is based on. These risk measures include; individual risk, societal risk, and specific adverse risk (Kizine, 2004: 2). Each alternative in decision-making has an array of consequences and therefore, the decision maker runs to pick the best out of the set. One of the theories of decision-making, the “Gardenfors-Sahlin’s decision-making theory” urges that the quantity and quality of decision-makers’ information relating to possible outcomes and states of the decision situation in most cases is a vital factor when making the decision. This is because the decision situation or state has different degrees of epistemic reliability. The Decision-Making Process Decision-making being a critical issue, it therefore needs to be carried out in a series of careful steps. The first step involves finding and defining the problem (Abdel, 2005: 5). In our case, the Bradford family’s major problem was lack of money to purchase a new home, with more space for the growing population. On noticing that Bradford needed a new home but they could not get enough money to purchase furniture, the first thing to reason about was the things that prevented them from buying the home. My noticeable reason that really made the Bradford family fail in purchasing the new home in Bradford was lack of enough money for buying furniture. Secondly, one should create and evaluate alternative solutions after getting to know the problem. This stage involves one taking a view of different opinions and options (possible solutions or alternatives) and comparing them. In this stage also, one should gather more information and data to be analyzed. In addition, one should list down both the positive and negative outcomes of the alternatives. Abdel in his book points out that the criterion for working out the alternatives include; costs, benefits, timeliness, acceptability and ethical soundness. Some of the possible alternatives Bradford was able to come up with are; completely stop buying the home, or look for a smaller home which can fit few furniture, or postpone purchase of the home until they get enough funds to buy the furniture, or borrow money from a financial institution to buy the furniture, among many others. They could thereafter workout the pros and cons of each possible alternative created. Thirdly, one selects the preferred solution to work out the problem. In this step, one actually chooses only one alternative from the generated list of possible solution. After looking at the positive and negative possible outcomes of each alternative independently, one uses the criteria of cost-benefit, acceptability or any other criteria to select the best alternative for implementation. Looking at our case of Bradford, the alternative to postpone the process of buying the home until they get huge capital for buying furniture was rather the best as it had many advantages being cost-beneficial. Since Bradford had one son, saving of money was a good decision for them. This as a result, could enable them accumulate enough funds to pay for everything they needed in their new home after a given planned period. After choosing the best alternative, the decision maker then establishes and implements the action plan. One should incorporate others’ support to ensure to ensure the best output. Lastly, one should examine the results after implementation to find out whether the desired results are achieved. Bradford after choosing to postpone the process of purchasing the new home next was to implement the alternative, and thereafter, evaluate the results after the set period has elapsed. This could help them know whether their goal to build up enough capital to purchase furniture for their new home had been achieved or not. In a case whereby the alternative have not shown the desired or expected results, the decision maker is therefore, advised to renew the process to allow correction. Differences between individual decision-making and family/group decision-making In family or group decision making, members or participants tables the idea or problem to be discussed or decided upon openly, where the participants in the discussion negotiates by either agreeing or disagreeing. In, group decision-making, participants aims at resolving the existing differences among the participant’s ideas. In the discussion, each member is able to disclose his or her thinking and feelings without fear (Hepworth, 2010: 260). Having a look at the individual decision-making, only one person is responsible for the problem and decision-making. He or she does not consult anyone else. The case of Bradford can be discussed as a family or group decision-making as it involved more than one individual, Mr. Bradford and Mrs. Bradford. Briefly, the only difference between the individual and group decision making processes is that, group decision-making involves more than one individuals whereas, there is only one individual in individual decision-making. Joining all individual to share ideas as far as decision-making is concerned can really mark the breakdown of the existing difference between group decision-making and individual decision-making. The above teaches us to bring together our ideas to achieve the best result. This is because it provides a comparison of ideas, unlike in individual decision-making whereby one mostly picks the first idea that comes in his or her mind. From the case of Bradford, the furniture retailers should learn that one needs a lot of capital to purchase their equipments and therefore, should look for means to suit every customer. Conclusion To sum up, the process of decision-making involves making a choice between a series of alternatives. Decision refers to a choice made by any group or individuals in hunt of some rationale (Steinbruner, 2002: 16). Diversity of ideas is the major difference existing between the individual decision-making and the group decision making. Ideas in a group decision-making are discussed and exchanged whereas individually made decisions are never discussed but instead, are decided upon by one person. Bringing together different ideas from different decision-makers, helps in ending the said existing difference. This is achieved through commitment (Robson, 2002: 3). The process of decision making comprise of decision-makers, a set of possible alternative actions, consequences, and utility values, attached to those consequences. People in management can use “game theory of independent and interdependent” in decision-making (Kelly, 2004: 1). Appendices Appendix a Figure a: Steps followed in decision-making and problem solving, achieved from; Abdel’s Problem solving and decision Making, book, and published on 2005. Bibliography Abdel, A. M. (2005). Problem solving and decision Making. Cairo, Pathways to Higher Education. Butler, I., Robinson, M., & Scanlan, L. (2005). Children and Decision Making. London, National Children's Bureau. Butterfield, J. (2010). Problem Solving and Decision Making. Boston, Mass, Course Technology/Cengage Learning. Gilboa, I. (2011). Making Better Decisions: Decision Theory in Practice. Chichester, West Sussex, Wiley-Blackwell. Hepworth, D. H. (2010). Direct Social Work Practice: Theory And Skills. Belmont, Calif, Brooks/Cole, Cengage Learning. Hoyer, W. D., and Macinnis, D. J. (2008). Consumer Behavior. Mason, Oh, South-Western. Kelly, A. (2004). Decision Making Using Game Theory: An Introduction for Managers XD-US. Cambridge [u.a.], Cambridge Univ. Press. Kizine, I. (2004). Survey of decision-making. Pdf document available at http://ew.eea.europa.eu/research/drivers/policy/.../download [Achieved on 20 April 2013] Robson, M. (2002). Problem-Solving In Groups. Aldershot, Hampshire, England, Gower. Steinbruner, J. D. (2002). The Cybernetic Theory Of Decision: New Dimensions Of Political Analysis. Princeton [U.A.], Princeton Univ. Press. Read More