The Effects of Decision Making Model: A Cultural Examination

Decision-making, is one of the many commonalities shared by a number of individuals regardless of their cultural background, demographic, economics, sex or religious affiliation. Everyday people are presented with problems, be they professional, political or social – problems do exist, and decision how to address them must be made. However, the difference in how an individual chooses to approach decisions differs from person to person. A Senior VP may make decisions more differently than a World Leader. A Christian decision-making process could be vastly different from a Buddhist. Analogies which to examine these dissimilar clusters of individuals are endless. Regardless of the categorization, decisions are ‘relative’ – what one may deem as a great decision could be shunned upon by others; decisions viewed as ineffective by some could be regarded as effective by others.

Yet, the practice for which individuals conclude their decisions, are not baseless because the human cognitive decision-making process is based on one or more decision-making models. Azuma, Daily, and Furmanski (2005) state that the human decision experience can be condensed into a number of decision-making models, however, one model will neither dominate another nor will one model be applicable for all situations. The human decision-making practice is an inductive and deductive information gathering process consisting of decision theories (e.g., rational, emotional, political, and garbage can). “These theories and processes are useful in trying to understand human decision making because they attempt to describe how humans execute particular stages of decision making” (Azuma, et al., 2005, p.1).

In regard to decision-making models, while there ...

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... when new technological products or elements are offered, individuals will determine “whether they like the product by trying it themselves or wait to observe the experience of others” (cited in Chang, 2002, p. 10).

The same rational decision process, in South Korean culture, can also be applied to education. Macdonald (1990) says that there is an enormous importance associated with education advancement in South Korea which has also contributed to the nation’s rapid cultural, political, and social development. Rationally South Korean has acknowledged the rationality that enhanced education within their culture will achieve the most desirable outcome. Kørnøv and Thissen (2000) states that the decisions to consider more rational processes based on the alternatives follows the logic of choosing alternatives that is expected to achieve the best objective or goal.