Critical thinking and decision making go hand in hand to enable us to evaluate a situation, process the information and determine a course of action. The focus of this paper is to put both critical thinking and decision-making under the microscope for closer inspection to see how one compliments the other and how they are used in our professional and personal lives. In addition, the benefits of critical thinking are examined and whether or not these two elements are present in the company I work for, ACN Communications. Lastly, the nominal group technique will be explored as a means for problem solving. As human beings, we are faced with many opportunities to critically think about the world around us. From the commercials we see on television, the articles we read in newspapers and even comments from co-workers about the companies we work for, we have the opportunity to question the world and people around us to determine what we think about it and how we are going to respond.
The evaluation and questioning of information and situations around us is called critical thinking. In my opinion, critical thinking then is our ability to question whether to believe or disbelieve what is in front of us and to decide how we are going to respond to it. How we respond is determined by the decisions that we make. Decision making is a key component in how we function on a personal and professional level as well. Both personally and professionally, we make decisions everyday. Determining what to wear to work, which route to take to get there and even what foods we will eat are all decisions that have an impact on our lives. From position paper outline , decision making is a key part of our jobs. Making the decision to hire or fire someone, whether or not to give someone an important project and deciding if we should launch a new product line, all impact our working lives and relationships in our organization.
Decision making is defined as "the act of deciding between two or more alternative courses of action." (A Dictionary of Finance and Banking in Economics and Business, 1997). Being a good decision maker causes others to trust our abilities, whereas the opposite is true if we tend to make decisions hastily without carefully considering the ramifications of those decisions and their impacts across functional units. It is obvious that decision making is a key component in our lives, but decision making without critical thinking gives us only half of the picture. It is these two components combined that result in successes both personally and professionally. Combining the techniques of critical thinking and decision making results in situations that have been analyzed closely and potential outcomes clearly considered and defined prior to taking any action. Based on Kitzmiller's comments, I believe that critical thinking and decision making must go hand in hand in order to be successful.
In order to develop a strategic plan, you must closely evaluate all aspects and in making decisions about your course of action, you develop a strategic plan for the future. From both a personal and professional level, these two combined techniques will put you in a better position to reach your goals and be successful. As restated by Ken Petress "Making quality decisions involves critical thinking; critical thinking has been defined as - involving the ability to explore a problem, question, or situation; integrate all the available information about it; arrive at a solution or hypothesis; and justify one's position". Critical thinking allows us to question our environment and the information presented to us. When I look my organization, ACN Communications, Inc., I see areas where critical thinking and decision-making are present and absent. Being a product manager for U.S. North American competitive intelligence, I work with all functional units within the organization. It is at this level, back-office support, that I see the most critical thinking and decision-making taking place. This data has been written with Essay Freelance Writers.
On a daily basis, representative and customer numeric information is prepared to determine our position versus the competition and over the calendar year. Individuals in our operations and finance departments work closely together to monitor our sales and report these findings to upper management. It is at the upper management level however, where I lose sight of critical thinking and decision-making. Our senior management staff consists of 5 founders, a CEO, COO, CFO and numerous Vice Presidents. Not assuming that these individuals are lacking in critical thinking, it is sometimes difficult to follow their reasoning for the decisions that they make. Case in point, a little over a year ago, half of our organizations employees were relieved of their duties in a downsizing effort. We were advised that in order to remain profitable, we had to decrease our expenses and streamline all of our processes. The remaining employees did just that and now a year later, we have rehired all of our staffs and added additional members to our organization. I question, why we could not streamline our processes and still retain the knowledgeable staff we had in place?
Critical thinking and decision making go hand in hand to enable us to evaluate a situation, process the information and determine a course of action. The focus of this paper is to put both critical thinking and decision-making under the microscope for closer inspection to see how one compliments the other and how they are used in our professional and personal lives. In addition, the benefits of critical thinking are examined and whether or not these two elements are present in the company I work for, ACN Communications. Lastly, the nominal group technique will be explored as a means for problem solving. As human beings, we are faced with many opportunities to critically think about the world around us. From the commercials we see on television, the articles we read in newspapers and even comments from co-workers about the companies we work for, we have the opportunity to question the world and people around us to determine what we think about it and how we are going to respond.