Running head: DECISION-MAKING PROCESS 1

Decision-Making Process

Cameron Bonner

MGT 230

August 19, 2014

Tomislav Valcic
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Decision-Making Process

This past weekend I was faced with a rather large decision to make. I contemplated

weather or not my wife and I should trade in our current vehicles and purchase one family

vehicle. There were many things to consider when making a decision that would impact both of

our lives tremendously, although in the end we were glad we purchased a new vehicle.

The first step for us was to make a list of reasons why we would want to trade in our

current vehicles and purchase one family vehicle. We did not have a very long list. In fact, we

had only one reason, which was to save money. This was ultimately going to happen from

multiple standpoints. One being our actual loan was going to be consolidated into one payment

as opposed to two payments. There would only be maintenance costs on one vehicle and there

would only be insurance to pay on one vehicle. After making a list of reasons why we would

want to trade in our vehicle we made another list of pros and cons of owning a new vehicle as

opposed to owning a used vehicle. This was the end of our process and ultimately decided to

purchase a new vehicle.

Our decision making process was quite different from that of the books. The book talked

about six main steps to follow when making a decision. The six steps are as follows: Identifying

and diagnosing the problem, generating alternative solutions, evaluating alternatives, making the

choice, implementing the decision, and evaluating the decision (Bateman & Snell, 2011). I think

when compared to these steps we evaluated alternatives and made the choice.

First off, we did not recognize that a problem exists and must be solved. We knew we

wanted to save money some way or another but neglected to see that it was a problem. Secondly

we did not generate alternate solutions. We knew we wanted to save money, but the only

solution we proposed was trading in our vehicles. Due to not generating any alternative solutions
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we were unable to evaluate any solutions. We did however make the choice and we did

implement the decision very quickly. We now need to conduct the final stage by evaluating our

decision. In other words, collect information on how well our decision is working.
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Reference

Bateman, T. S., & Snell, S. A. (2011). Management Leading & Collaborating in a Competitive

World (9th ed.). New York, NY: McGraw-Hill Company.