Available Alternatives in Decision Making Process - Assignment Example

Marketing: Individual Report Executive Summary Decision making is a cognitive mental process, whereby the decision maker has to choose an option out of the available options. Human beings make many decisions on a daily basis. Depending on their complexity, decision making process vary from one decision to another. Some decisions are remarkably simple that they are usually made unconsciously. Some are complex, and the maker needs to make evaluation the available alternatives and the effects of such alternatives will have. This is what I am going to elaborate in this paper. This paper deals with a complex decision making using the decision matrix to evaluate the available alternatives. I will start with coming up with the options. Then I will come up with several evaluation criteria. Once I have these, I will then use the decision matrix to come up with the most favorable decision in the circumstances. I will then go ahead and evaluate the various evaluation characteristics used by various people. Introduction Post Graduate University Options. Option one: Study a two year long MBA at the Australian National University (ANU). This is a full time course offered at Canberra. Australian National University ranked number 38 worldwide. Tuition fee is $ 30,000. Option two: Study a 3 year part time Master of Professional Accounting at the Charles Darwin International University (CDIU). This university is located at Grevillea and was ranked between number 302-350 world wide. The fee is approximately $24,000. Option three: Study 1.5 years full time Master of Commerce at the University of Sydney (US). This university is located at Sydney and was ranked number 58 worldwide. The tuition fee is approximately $29,000. Option four: study a two year full time Master of Business Finance at the Victoria University (VU). This university is located in Melbourne, and it never appeared on the top 400 ranking of universities worldwide in 2011. The tuition fee is approximately $22,000. Option five: Study a two year distance learning Master of Financial Management at the University of Queensland(UQ). This university is located in Brisbane and was ranked number 74 worldwide. The tuition fee is approximately $27,000. Option six: Study a two year research Master of Economics at the James Brook University (JBU). This university is located in Townsville and was never ranked among the top 400 Universities worldwide in 2011. The tuition fee is approximately $23,000. List of Evaluative Criteria. 1. Location 2. Tuition Fee payable 3. Mode of study 4. Duration of the course 5. University ranking worldwide 6. Campus options i.e number of campuses offering the course Decision Matrix. LOCATION FEES($) MODE DURATION RANKING CAMPUS OPTIONS ANU Canberra 30,000 Fulltime 2 years 38 3 CDIU Grevillea 24,000 Part time 3 years 301-350 2 US Sydney 29,000 Fulltime 1.5 years 58 3 VU Melbourne 22,000 Fulltime 2 years - 1 UQ Brisbane 27,000 Distance 2 years 74 2 JBU Townsville 23,000 Research 2 years - 1 Scale: 5- very Good. 4- Good. 3- Satisfactory. 2- Bad. 1-Very bad Jane. LOCATION 25/100 FEES($) 25/100 MODE 15/100 DURATION 15/100 RANKING 10/100 CAMPUS OPTIONS 10/100 TOTAL (%) ANU Weight(%) 5 125 2 20 4 60 4 60 5 50 5 50 365 CDIU Weight(%) 4 100 4 100 3 45 5 75 3 30 4 40 390 US Weight(%) 4 100 3 75 4 60 2 30 4 40 5 50 355 VU Weight(%) 3 75 5 125 4 60 4 60 2 20 2 20 360 UQ Weight(%) 3 75 3 75 5 75 4 60 4 40 4 40 375 JBU Weight(%) 2 50 4 100 3 45 4 60 1 10 2 20 285 Paul. LOCATION 20/100 FEES($) 30/100 MODE 10/100 DURATION 15/100 RANKING 10/100 CAMPUS OPTIONS 15/100 TOTAL ANU Weight(%) 4 80 2 60 4 40 4 60 5 50 4 60 350 CDIU Weight(%) 3 60 4 120 3 30 5 75 3 30 3 45 360 US Weight(%) 4 80 3 90 4 40 2 30 4 40 4 60 340 VU Weight(%) 5 100 5 150 4 40 4 60 2 20 2 30 400 UQ Weight(%) 4 80 3 90 3 30 4 60 4 40 4 60 360 JBU Weight(%) 3 60 4 120 4 40 4 60 1 10 1 15 305 Jean. evaluation LOCATION 20/100 FEES($) 20/100 MODE 20/100 DURATION 15/100 RANKING 10/100 CAMPUS OPTIONS 15/100 TOTAL ANU Weight(%) 4 80 1 20 4 80 4 60 5 50 4 60 350 CDIU Weight(%) 3 60 4 80 2 40 5 75 3 30 3 45 330 US Weight(%) 3 60 2 40 4 80 2 30 4 40 4 60 310 VU Weight(%) 2 40 4 80 4 80 4 60 1 10 2 30 290 UQ Weight(%) 4 80 3 60 2 40 4 60 4 40 3 45 325 JBU Weight(%) 5 100 5 100 2 40 4 60 1 10 2 30 330 Analysis. Jane is most likely to go to Charles Darwin International University and least likely to attend James Brook University. Paul is most likely to go Victoria University and least likely to attend James Brook University. Jean is most likely to attend Australian National University and least likely to attend Victoria University. Jane likes to stay with her parents so much. Her parents recently live in Canberra, and she will be delighted if she can get a university in Canberra. This will be much cheaper for her also because she will not have to incur extra housing costs. She will just live at home. However despite this, she also pays part of her school fees herself and thus, she has to consider a relatively cheaper university since she does not have a proper job at the moment. Her savings are also not much. University ranking and campus choices do not matter so much to her. This is because Jane believes that what will matter in the end is the effort she puts on her studies and not the nature of the university. She believes that it is possible for one to excel even when the university is not remarkably good, depending one’s effort. Campus choices also do not matter because she does not expect any transfers before completion of her masters. Paul is looking for a scholarship but has not yet gotten one. Therefore, the issue of cost is important to him. Location is also pertinent to him because he is looking forward to settling down in the place he will go study for his masters. He does not like the idea of moving around. The mode of study is not particularly significant to him because he has no job. He can therefore, learn at any time of the day. Paul also hopes to finish his masters at the least time possible. This is because Paul thinks that he is aging and thus the earlier he finishes his masters, the better because he can start looking for a stable job and other priorities in life. For Jean, the location, tuition fees and the mode of study are equally important. Jane has a job, and she is positive that her employer will give her a study-leave to pursue her masters. That is why full time study is particularly important to her so that she may concentrate well on her studies. She feels that she did not do her best at Bachelors because she is juggling between work and school. School fee is equally important because she pays her own fee and there is no one else to support her. Also, due to her not remarkably strong grades, she is not confident about getting a scholarship. Duration of her studies is equally vital because, she will be on study leave and she is not sure how long her employer will tolerate her absence. University ranking is not very important to her. This is because she feels that the universities I listed are all good, and she can do well if she attends any of them. From the above analysis, it can be noted that their rankings of evaluative criteria are different. This is because in reaching at a conclusion each of them had to make an analysis of the prevailing circumstances in life. They have different factors to consider. They have different commitments and plans for their lives. Jane wants to live with her parents, Paul wants to settle down, and Jean has to consider the interests of her job. Theoretical Analysis of Behavior Decision making process, is a complex process which is determined by various factors. Those factors are usually personal or environmental. Demographic factors are usually socioeconomic factors expressed statistically. Those factors include age, gender, sex and religion. These factors affect decision making in many ways. Research has shown that women are more affected by the decision making processes compared to men. They do an in-depth analysis of the surrounding environment and usually take longer to arrive at a decision as compare to men (Gill, Stockard, Johnson, & Williams, 1987). Men, on the other hand, are faster at reaching decisions and are known to make dominating, assertive decisions. They do not take long to make decisions and once made, they are unlikely to change their minds about them. (Wood, 1990). As regards age, it has been noted that young people are known to make rush decisions. Older people, on the other hand, take longer to reach at a decision and tend to make serene decisions because of their failing memories (Spaniol and Bayen 2005). In an environment with imperfect distribution of information, education becomes a key contributor to sound decision making. It has been observed that a learned person is able to make an informed judgment, compared to a similar person who is less educated. The reasoning behind this is that an educated person is more likely to derive more information from scarce information compared with less educated person (Huffman 1974). As regards marital status, research has shown that married couples tend to make more informed decisions because of the confidence instilled by the sharing of thoughts. A married person will tend to be more confident when he makes decisions, simply for the fact that marriage provides a strong, positive sense of identity and self worth. (Gove, W. R., Style, C. B., & Hughes, M. (1990). Income is a powerful measure of decision making process. This is because most of the decision including the present case will always involve the spending of money. It follows therefore, that a person earning a reasonable amount of income will be more flexible in reaching a decision compared to a person earning a meager income and thus strains financially. It can also be argued that more valuable things cost more money. Therefore, people tend to admire things which value much and income will determine whether they access them or not (Thomas and Pol, 1997). Religion is another demographic factor that affects decision making. Religion influences the ethical character of a person and their decisions tend to be mirrored from what they believe in. A case in point is if ones religion requires them to get married at a certain age. In making decisions that person will be influenced by that standard of getting married before a certain age. In making long term decisions, that factor will be put into consideration, and at times, the decision abandoned on that basis (Fernando 2005). Occupation also has an effect in decision making in that there are some occupations which are considered particularly significant by the society. Members of such occupations are normally left with the decision making responsibilities of that society. The individual members of the society will also try to alienate their actions with the actions of such people. (McCrae, R. R., Terracciano, A., Costa, P. T., & Ozer, D. J. 2006) (Kersey and David 1998) have also argued that a person’s place of origin has an impact on the decisions made. This includes upbringing and also what the person feels of his place of origin. They give an example of a student who comes from a less developed country. They argue that when such a student will be looking for a place to do their further studies, there is a tendency for them to consider taking opportunities from developed countries. As for personality, Jane’s decision making was contributed to by the fact that Jane is an intensely emotional person who has a strong attachment towards her aging parents. Paul’s decision was majorly influenced by the fact that Paul is a person who is determined to live his life in a certain way. He believes that he has reached that point in his life when he has to get a family and settle down. This was a driving factor of his choice of location of university. Finally, Jean is a principled hardworking lady who has decided to give herself a second chance to get outstanding grades. She is highly determined in this that she is willing to put her job on the line. She also believes in herself that she will make it. Conclusion Decision making process is an activity of the mind, which is part of the day to day activities of a human being. Simple decisions are usually made by the brain unconsciously while complex decisions like the one dealt with above needs evaluation and analysis. What can be drawn from the above is that decision processes vary from a situation to a situation and is determined by various factors. At the end, there cannot be right or wrong decisions because the doer believes that they are right. The question is whose standards are to be adhered to in reaching a decision. This is a question which can only be answered in reference to a situation, and answers vary from one situation to another. At times, there are no standards and the decision is made very subjectively. What may be right to one person may not be right to another and vice versa. References and Bibliography. Fernando. W. (2005). Religion’s influence on decision-making: Evidence of influence on the judgment, emotional and motivational qualities of Sri Lankan leaders’ decision-making, 21st European Group of Organization Studies (EGOS) Colloquium, Berlin, 2005. Gill S, Stockard J, Johnson M & Williams S (1987). Measuring gender differences: The expressive dimension and critique of androgyny scales. Sex Roles, 17, 375-400 Keirsey, David (May 1, 1998) [1978]. Please Understand Me II: Temperament, Character, Intelligence (1st Ed. ed.). Prometheus Nemesis Book Co. pp. 3 McCrae, R. R., Terracciano, A., Costa, P. T., & Ozer, D. J. (2006). Person-factors in the California adult Q-set: Closing the door on personality types? European Journal of Personality, 20, 29-44 Furnham, A., & Crump, J. (2005). Personality Traits, Types, and Disorders: An Examination of the Relationship Between Three Self-Report Measures. European Journal of Personality, 19, 167-184. Spaniol J & Bayen UJ (2005). Aging and conditional probability judgments: A global matching approach. Psychology and Aging, 20, 165-181. Thomas and Pol (1997). Demography for Business decision making. US: Greenwood Publishing Group. Wallace E. Huffman (1974) American Journal of Agricultural Economics Vol. 56, No. 1 (Feb., 1974), pp. 85-97 Wood JT (1990). Gendered lives: Communication, gender, and culture. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth. Gove, W. R., Style, C. B., & Hughes, M. (1990). The effect of marriage on the well-being of adults: A theoretical analysis. Journal of Family Issues, 11(1), 4-35. Read More