Magister Artium (Social Work) - MA(SW) / Adolescence has been regarded as a particularly important stage for the continued development of young adults as they start to make their own life’s decisions and engage in a variety of activities that will influence the rest of their lives. One of the important goals of adolescence is the development of decision-making skills as independence increases, requiring more independent decisions. When an adolescent makes decisions, it is important that s/he has the skills to make confident ones. Various studies identify factors that could affect adolescent decision-making, such as the family environment and family-member relationships, but information pertaining to this subject is still relatively limited. This study examines the role of family functioning in the decision-making styles of adolescents. The theoretical framework used for this study is based on the Family Systems Theory, of which the McMaster Model of Family Functioning (MMFF) is a component. The MMFF is one variation that underlies the family system model, be it nuclear or extended families discussed within chapter 2. A quantitative methodological approach was employed in this study with a cross-sectional correlational research design. The sample consisted of 457 Grade 9 learners from schools in the Overberg area. The data was collected using a self-reported questionnaire that included the Demographic Information, the Family Assessment Device and the Melbourne Decision Making Questionnaire, as part of the quantitative methodology. The data was then analysed using the Statistical Package for Social Sciences V22 (SPSS). The results were provided using descriptive and inferential statistics. Participation in this study was voluntary after being well informed, while confidentiality and anonymity was maintained throughout the study. The main results for family functioning indicated the assumption that the participants might have ineffective functioning on all the family functioning variables. The main results for decision-making styles showed an assumption that the vigilant decision-making style was the highest and the Buck-passing decision-making style, the lowest.

The main purpose of this research is to identify the value systems and decision-making styles of Iranian managers. The relationships between their value systems and decision styles, and between their value systems and certain demographic variables (such as level of education, social group, etc.) and organizational variables (such as company size, kind of ownership, etc.) are also investigated. Both quantitative and qualitative methods are applied in this study and the following analyses are undertaken:a one-way univariate and multivariate analysis of variance (ANOVA and MANOVA) are used to test the hypotheses developed in Chapter 1.Mean differences are examined, using multiple discriminant analysis (MDA), when significant results are obtained.Pearson Partial Correlation analysis is performed to elucidate the relationships between the managerial value systems and their status of individualism/collectivism.Case study analysis is conducted for an in-depth investigation into the data.In the quantitative portion of the study, a sample of 768 managers in various organizations was surveyed. Statistical analysis of the survey data classified managerial value systems into tribalistic, egocentric, conformist, manipulative, sociocentric, and existential. This classification was conducted in accordance with the framework developed by Flowers et al. (1975). Furthermore, following Ali's questionnaire (1993), managerial decision-making styles were classified into autocratic, pseudo-consultative, consultative, participative, pseudo-participative, and delegative.The findings indicate that an average Iranian manager represents a mix of all six value systems in roughly equal proportions. The data suggests that a conformist orientation is the dominant value system of Iranian managers followed by sociocentric values, with egocentric values the least dominant. As for the decision styles, ++ / more than one half of Iranian managers (55%) practice consultative means of decision-making, followed by 21 % who are proponents of participative style, and 15% who are pseudo-participative. Delegative, autocratic and pseudo-consultative decision styles are the least preferred in Iran. The relationship between value systems and decision-making styles revealed that highly collectivist managers are more participative while highly individualistic managers are more autocratic in their decision-making style. The results also suggest that the higher their level within the hierarchy, the more likely managers are to be delegative and autocratic, and the less likely they are to be participative and consultative than their colleagues in the lower levels of managerial hierarchy.A comparative cross-cultural analysis of the managerial value systems and decision-making styles of Iranian managers with their counterparts in other Middle Eastern countries was also undertaken. The results indicate that overall the dominant value systems of managers from the Middle East are conformist, sociocentric and existential, with egocentric and manipulative being the least prevalent. Furthermore, their dominant decision-making style is consultative, with autocratic and delegative styles being the least prevalent. Compared with the other Middle Eastern managers, Iranian managers are more conformist and tribalistic and less sociocentric and existential. Furthermore, Iranian managers are more consultative, more delegative, more participative, and significantly less pseudo-consultative, compared with managers from other Middle Eastern countries.The qualitative portion of this study comprises two extensive case studies of exemplary Iranian organizations, i.e., Tehran Municipality and Watt Meter Company of Iran. The main objective of these case studies is to provide in-depth data as a supplement to ++ / the broad based analysis of the questionnaire survey. They also give a different perspective, resulting from a multidisciplinary integrative inquiry. The required data for writing the cases was collected through the companies' records, field observations, and one-to-one and focus group interviews with various levels of their management team, as well as their employees and customers. Both primary and secondary data were then used in writing the case studies. Qualitative analysis of the case studies suggests that advanced management practices like decentralization, delegation of authority, out-sourcing, detailed planning, total quality management, effective human resource management and strategic management, which are more widely used in the industrialized countries, could be used with effectiveness in Iran despite its cultural differences. This finding supports Ralston et al. (1993) and both "convergence" and "divergence" views toward management practices and suggests that advanced management practices and continuous attention to human resource management may, as the case of the Watt Meter Company implies, create an effective corporate culture that fosters change.The leader's role is a very important variable in the issue of the cross-cultural transmission of management practices - especially in collectivistic societies like Iran and the rest of the Middle Eastern countries. In these societies, individuals and organizations identify strongly with their leaders. This is mainly due to their historical, socio-cultural and Islamic traditions and values. The case studies suggest that in traditional, hierarchical, and collectivistic societies like Iran, to be effective, organizational change should start from the very top. The vital common variables for success are visionary leadership with clear direction, effective human resource management, and empowerment of the ++ / workforce. All these seem to be essential for building the required corporate culture that fosters change.As the first study to measure the value systems and decision-making styles of Iranian managers, it contributes to the management literature in Iran and the Middle East. It builds upon:Flowers' et al (1975) contentions regarding the construct of managerial value systems;Hofstede's (1980) theory of national culture, which attempts to identify the cultural characteristics of members of various countries;Ronen and Shankar's (1985) principles for grouping countries based on their religion, language, and geography; andThe convergence versus divergence controversy regarding the cross-cultural transmission of management practices.This research is among the very few studies which investigates the characteristics of Iranian managers, i.e., their value systems and decision styles. It is widely believed that the business philosophy of any country depends, to a large degree, upon the values held by those in management. The present study is, thus, a detailed introduction to contemporary Iran and the way it is managed.

Recruitment is a mission-critical process for human resources management. Due to the high turnover rate and lack of specific skill requirements, the retail sector has an acute need to hire new employees to fill vacancies. Therefore, recruiting a relatively large number of new employees in a limited period of time is crucial for companies in the retail industry. Existing studies have suggested that by designing recruitment activities and utilising appropriate recruitment sources to promote and announce a job, employers are able to attract jobseekers to apply for jobs and join the organisation. The social communication theory highlights four major elements involved in any information communication: the information communicator (source), the information receiver (audience/jobseeker), the response (the receiver’s attitude towards the information received and the decision taken to apply or not) and the stimulus (the message/information content that is transmitted by the communicator). An individual’s ‘attitude’ towards the recruitment information can significantly affect their ‘intention’ of making a job application decision, and this intention can significantly influence their actual decision-making ‘behaviour’, such as accepting a job offer. Consequently, most of these studies focus on the effectiveness of the stimulus (e.g., how the design of the recruitment information content can attract more jobseekers).However, there are divergent results in the literature. For instance, numerous researchers have attempted to investigate how different recruitment information sources can impact jobseekers’ application and recruitment decisions. Some researchers claim that the formal, company-controlled, recruitment information sources, such as advertising and corporate websites, are less effective than informal. By contrast, other researchers indicate that formal sources are used and accepted more often by jobseekers because this information is regarded as considered to be more objective and reliable than the experience-based route (e.g., word-of-mouth). Some researchers suggest that employers should provide objective, hard information (confirmable information such as salary and location) and provide the message in the employer’s tone’ using company-controlled sources; thereby not to convey too much soft, experience-based information from employees. Only very limited research has considered the influences of receiver’s differences (individual differences) on the stimulus (content) and communications (source) as a moderator. The receivers’ differences could be the essential information that can be used to interpret the divergent findings in the literature. Psychologists have demonstrated that individual differences will influence personal values and will be translated into personal preferences. Decision-making research suggests that every decision-making process involves individuals’ decision habits and preferences. People tend to keep their decision habits and preferences throughout different decisions. Therefore, individual traits should be considered when seeking to understand how jobseekers evaluate information to make decisions. A well-known classification of individual differences that has been shown to affect decision-making preference is an individual’s decision-making style: maximisers (those who always try to find the best possible result and carefully evaluate all types of information from different sources) and satisficers (who aim for good-enough results and tend to save time resources). The present study aims to address the gap in the existing literature by exploring the possible reactions of different decision-making styles (maximiser vs. satisficer) in response to recruitment messages with different lengths, valences, forms and provider backgrounds that are provided from various sources. Study 1 and Study 2 are employed as groundwork studies to provide a deeper understanding of maximiser-style and satisficer-style retail-trade jobseekers’ traits. The results illustrate retail trade jobseekers’ job-information-seeking preferences and the relationship between an individual’s maximising tendency and other cognitive-based individual characteristics. The results suggest that employers should not exclude either maximiser-style or satisficer-style jobseekers because the current maximiser-style and satisficer-style employees demonstrated the same levels of job satisfaction with no particular group showed a higher or lower turnover intention. Based on the findings of Study 1 and Study 2, Chapter 5 starts with a scenario-based experiment (Study 3). This experiment assesses whether, when presented with a realistic job-information-searching scenario of receiving basic job information from a typical formal short job advertisement, maximisers and satisficers differ in their need for further information. It also explores whether further evaluation is required from informal information sources in relation to valence and tie strength. Study 3 leads to the reflection that staff ‘word-of-mouth’ (SWOM) messages were influential but could not be controlled by organisations. Study 4 expands the findings of Study 3 and tests whether employers can satisfy more maximiser-style and satisficer-style jobseekers’ information needs to encourage their perceived organisational attractiveness (OA) by providing more detailed formal job advertisement messages. The findings highlight that more details of hard information could effectively satisfy jobseekers’ information needs, even though a group of jobseekers still wanted to search for more experience-based information. However, the findings also show that more detailed messages only slightly increase maximisers’ perceived OA and do not increase satisficers’ perceived OA. By extending the findings of Study 3 and Study 4, three scenario-based experiments (Study 5.1, Study 5.2 and Study 5.3) are designed to test how employers can attract more maximiser-style and satisficer-style jobseekers by tailoring their recruitment messages. The results demonstrate that the SWOM-formed realistic job preview (RJP) messages with some negative information could best increase jobseekers’ perception of source credibility and OA. Furthermore, when maximisers and satisficers looked for different job positions they would perceive the source credibility differently if the background information of the information provider as different. A qualitative-based supplementary study (Study 6) is further conducted to delineate three issues that are not directly measured or not sufficiently clarified in the above-mentioned five studies. This complements Studies 3, 4 and 5 and theoretically enhances the understanding of how jobseekers refer to job recruitment messages and how they evaluate the job information. The results contribute to decision-making theory and social communication theory by demonstrating that the notion of maximisers and satisficers represents a significant and central individual trait in job-application information searching and decision-making in the retail trade. Furthermore, the findings suggest that an individual’s decision-making style is an influential moderator for the effectiveness of communication elements. This research also provides a fundamental basis for further studies to apply individual-differences in human resource management field.

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Title A comparative study of Swedish generation Y decision-making style between high involvement and low involvement products. Research questions  How does product involvement influence consumer decision-making styles in Generation Y of Swedish nationals for the two selected products?  To what level does the model proposed by Sproles and Kendall in 1986 now apply to the modern-day Generation Y in Sweden as they decide on both of the selected products? Purpose The purpose of this research undertaking was to discover and investigate the Swedish generation Y decision-making style and examine if there is a relation between product involvement and consumer decision-making style, and also to compare the extent to which the modern-day Generation Y in Sweden correspondence between age, location and product orientation not predicted by Sproles and Kendall in 1986. Method This comparison was conducted based on contemporary primary research versus what was proposed as ideal for last three generations of consumer interest groups. A quantitative research approach was used to select the primary data and answer our research questions. Conclusion Consumer buying behavior is influenced by the policy and the mental status of the buyers. According to the respondents, consumer selection can be said to be depend on the current needs and understanding of products. The study reveals that marketing needs to incorporate the realities of prevailing demographics. Consumers tend to have a decision making process that has an emotional attachment to brand, effectiveness and the perceived outcomes.

To manage an uncertain future relevant societal groups, such as government and corporate sectors, utilise economic forecasts to help plan future strategies. Many vital decisions are based on economic forecasts. Economists have traditionally been the professionals employed as economic forecasting experts. The dominant paradigm for present day forecasting is the "rational expectations theory", which assumes that a forecaster is capable of making optimal use all of the available information. The field of psychology offers a different, yet complementary, approach to the topic of economic forecasting. The aim of the current study was to research mental processes and behaviours of individuals participating in a forecasting task. The role of the following psychological variables within economic prediction behaviour was assessed: (1) task complexity, (2) decision making style, (3) the anchoring and adjustment heuristic, (4) the framing effect, and (5) personal feelings about the task content. All of these variables were hypothesised to have a direct influence on prediction behaviour. In addition, task complexity and decision making style were assumed to moderate the influence of the other psychological variables. A conceptual framework was designed to depict the assumed relationships. (For complete abstract open document)

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Despite the critical importance of mental health, many people often feel reluctant to seek treatment for their mental health conditions. This research examines a novel factor that influences people’s pursuit of mental health support: individual decision-making style. Across six studies, I demonstrate that individuals who predominantly rely on reason in decision-making are less likely to engage in the pursuit of mental health resources compared to those who rely on emotions. Furthermore, I find that this effect occurs because reason-based processing, as opposed to emotion-based processing, decreases individuals’ perceived severity of their mental health symptoms. Consequently, they are less likely to recognize the need for help, leading to a negative impact on their engagement with and utilization of mental health products and services. These findings contribute to research on decision-making style and consumer mental health. In addition to its theoretical significance, the current research aims to pave the way for further explorations into a largely neglected but increasingly important domain of consumer research, the consumer pursuit of mental health resources.

Cultural, social, personal and psychological factors were identified by Rani (2014) as the four major influences on consumer’s buying behavior. While There are many studies about the personal values and consumer purchase behavior, but there is very little research to study Africa women’ consumer behavior, and in Zambia there is even less studies which are conducted to analyze their women’ values and their consumer decision-making styles. The purpose of this study is to explore Zambian women’ personal values and their consumption decision-making styles and how personal values influence their consumer decision-making styles in the context of human hair extension products. It is very important to analyze the consumer values of Zambia women and their consumer decision-making styles in the context of human hair extension, because the demand for hair extension in Zambia is growing fast and the hair extension has become a muti-billion dollars industry This paper had reviewed literature regarding consumer behavior, in specifically personal values and consumer decision-making styles. The LOV scale proposed by Kahle (1983) and the Consumer’s decision making styles proposed by Sproles and Kendall (1986) were adopted to analyze the inter relationship through methodology of multiple regression. The author conducted a descriptive analysis of the primary data collected by a field survey of research questionnaire toward Zambian women. All the questionnaires are distributed and collected at the main shopping malls and universities in Lusaka, Zambia. Through a series analysis of the sample by SPSS, the paper had detected all the list of values and decision-making styles of Zambian women. There are only two consumer values namely Security related with physical and financial safety and Self-fulfillment related with achievement of consumption which achieved a reasonable degree of reliability, and the consumer decision-making styles of Confused by Over-choice related with lacking ability of information analysis and Novelty-Fashion Consciousness related up-to-date fashion pursuit achieved a reasonable degree of reliability. The results reveal that the higher the value of Security, the greater the adoption of Novelty-Fashion Consciousness, and the higher the value of Self-fulfillment, the greater the adoption of Confused by Over-choice Decision-making Styles. However the Security value does not have any significant impact on the adoption of Confused by Over-choice Decision-making styles and the effect of Self-fulfilment value on Novelty-Fashion Consciousness is not significant.

Cultural, social, personal and psychological factors were identified by Rani (2014) as the four major influences on consumer’s buying behavior. While There are many studies about the personal values and consumer purchase behavior, but there is very little research to study Africa women’ consumer behavior, and in Zambia there is even less studies which are conducted to analyze their women’ values and their consumer decision-making styles. The purpose of this study is to explore Zambian women’ personal values and their consumption decision-making styles and how personal values influence their consumer decision-making styles in the context of human hair extension products. It is very important to analyze the consumer values of Zambia women and their consumer decision-making styles in the context of human hair extension, because the demand for hair extension in Zambia is growing fast and the hair extension has become a muti-billion dollars industry This paper had reviewed literature regarding consumer behavior, in specifically personal values and consumer decision-making styles. The LOV scale proposed by Kahle (1983) and the Consumer’s decision making styles proposed by Sproles and Kendall (1986) were adopted to analyze the inter relationship through methodology of multiple regression. The author conducted a descriptive analysis of the primary data collected by a field survey of research questionnaire toward Zambian women. All the questionnaires are distributed and collected at the main shopping malls and universities in Lusaka, Zambia. Through a series analysis of the sample by SPSS, the paper had detected all the list of values and decision-making styles of Zambian women. There are only two consumer values namely Security related with physical and financial safety and Self-fulfillment related with achievement of consumption which achieved a reasonable degree of reliability, and the consumer decision-making styles of Confused by Over-choice related with lacking ability of information analysis and Novelty-Fashion Consciousness related up-to-date fashion pursuit achieved a reasonable degree of reliability. The results reveal that the higher the value of Security, the greater the adoption of Novelty-Fashion Consciousness, and the higher the value of Self-fulfillment, the greater the adoption of Confused by Over-choice Decision-making Styles. However the Security value does not have any significant impact on the adoption of Confused by Over-choice Decision-making styles and the effect of Self-fulfilment value on Novelty-Fashion Consciousness is not significant.