Question

Examine how organizations uses critical thinking and how is it linked to learning organization 4 pages

Answer 1

“Critical thinking calls for a persistent effort to examine any belief or supposed form of knowledge in the light of the evidence that supports it and the further conclusions to which it tends. It also generally requires ability to recognize problems, to find workable means for meeting those problems, to gather and marshal pertinent information, to recognize unstated assumptions and values, to comprehend and use language with accuracy, clarity, and discrimination, to interpret data, to appraise evidence and evaluate arguments, to recognize the existence (or non-existence) of logical relationships between propositions, to draw warranted conclusions and generalizations, to put to test the conclusions and generalizations at which one arrives, to reconstruct one’s patterns of beliefs on the basis of wider experience, and to render accurate judgments about specific things and qualities in everyday life.”

Why Critical Thinking Skills Are Important in the Workplace

Are you a job candidate looking to land the perfect job? Or an employee aiming to climb the next rung on your career ladder?

Developing your critical thinking skills will make you a better candidate for that new job or that promotion.

The words “critical thinking” frequently pop up in job descriptions and on adjective lists for resume-writing, so it’s clearly a desirable characteristic.

What Is Critical Thinking?

Thinking critically is the ability to analyze a concept objectively, considering the facts and differing perspectives to reach a sound, logical conclusion.

The reason critical thinking is a skill—and not just an automatic thought process—is because most people naturally think “uncritically,” making decisions based on personal biases, self-interest, or irrational emotions. Everyone is vulnerable to this type of simplistic thinking—it’s human nature.

However, there are ways to improve your thought process to be more intentional about thinking critically.

The Role of Critical Thinking in Business

When applying critical thinking in business, a leader must use logic to identify, understand, analyze and solve problems. This requires patience and practice. The successful application of critical thinking often results in more efficient work processes.
The following three examples help answer why critical thinking is important in business:

Improve communication strategies. Communicating with different types of people requires defining the needs of the target audience, which demands critical thinking. For example, if a company is being bought out by a competitor, the CEO must consider how this will impact everyone, from low-level employees to investors, and determine what messages to convey to each party. Acting quickly is essential, as he or she should be the first to give the employees the news to maintain their trust.

Support smooth operations. Maintaining daily operations in an ever-changing environment requires constant critical thinking. For example, if the power goes out at a restaurant and there is no emergency generator, the manager must decide not only what to do with the customers and staff but also whether and how to salvage refrigerated food. The quicker the manager acts, the more likely he or she is to make the best of an unfortunate situation.

Streamline product development. A product development role requires multiple decisions to ensure efficacy, marketability and safety. For instance, if a company is marketing a new kitchen gadget, designing it a certain way would make it look more appealing, but that design could also make it more difficult to use. Should the company prioritize function or fashion? The sooner it reaches a decision, the sooner production can begin.

The Demand for Critical Thinking in Business

Critical thinking is considered a soft skill. Unlike hard skills, such as proficiency in a foreign language, the interpersonal skills characterized as soft are hard to quantify. Communication, leadership and teamwork are examples of soft skills; they might not be “measurable” with a test or numbers, but they are recognizable in how people interact with others. While hard skills, as evidenced in grades, certificates or demonstrable competencies (such as typing speed), are part of what recruiters look at, they’re only part of the picture.

The job market is increasingly acknowledging the importance of soft skills. In fact, according to a 2016 PayScale and Future Workplace joint report, about 60% of hiring managers believe recent graduates lack problem-solving and critical-thinking skills.

Given that critical thinking is important in business, professionals must make an effort to develop this soft skill. Critical thinking, just like problem-solving, can be an acquired skill, given the right amount of dedication to practicing and mastering it.

Real-world simulations or settings can provide the background for professionals to develop this skill. What’s more, to have an impact on business, critical thinking must be complemented by clear and confident communication (another soft skill). Even professionals with business savvy likely won’t succeed if they can’t communicate their insights to senior leaders, managers or co-workers.

How Critical Thinking and Communication Are Linked in Business

If communication refers to the meaningful exchange of information in an organization, critical thinking is the engine that provides the meaning. The ability to identify a problem and develop a cogent explanation and solution is important for business communication.

Rider University’s online Master of Arts in Business Communication teaches these competencies and provides students with opportunities to hone their talents. It allows people to study 100% online and complete their degree in less than two years.

Students can learn to apply critical thinking and communication skills for business success in the following ways:

Assessment of various situations in a business setting. Take, for example, the head of a marketing team managing nine people. To develop a marketing proposal for a new product, he divides his team into three groups of three. Each group pitches a concept. The head of the marketing team then selects one, justifying his choice with clear communication that rewards those whose concept was chosen without discouraging the others. This is one of the many situations that may arise in a business setting that requires using critical thinking while communicating.

Collaboration among teams/departments. Leaders need to manage their teams’ internal communications, as well as their interactions with other teams. For example, the aforementioned marketing team might have to work directly with the product development team to identify a product’s most notable selling points. In this case, a course focused on communication and organizational culture prepares managers to recognize that the product development department might have a very different day-to-day approach to work and collaboration.

Teamwork. Leaders need to be able to navigate the differences among groups of people from a variety of backgrounds. Rider’s online Master of Arts in Business Communication features coursework that focuses on the multicultural aspects of teamwork in an organization and can be a useful tool in business.

Presentation strategies. Critical thinking allows individuals to make business-influencing decisions and convey their conclusions with confidence. For example, an individual has to present the results of a financial quarter, and the figures show a loss. He may recognize that this is due to a major investment in a new work productivity tool, which is projected to increase turnover and result in a large profit next quarter. The program’s business presentation coursework equips professionals to make this kind of judgment.

Verbal communication. Leaders may have to use verbal skills to change another person’s opinion in business. For example, if they are sitting on the board, and the board votes on an important issue that results in a tie, they may want to speak up and present an argument for their side of the vote. The coursework focusing on techniques for persuasive discourse provides students with the competencies needed to change people’s opinions and behaviors.

Written communication. Not all business cases are made in face-to-face situations. For example, leaders can inspire their teams through a powerful email. A course in strategic business writing provides students with the tools needed to harness their writing skills to support strategy and produce desired outcomes, such as motivating employees.

Critical Thinking and Organizational Performance – Links and Benefits

Group think and unproductive conflict are equally damaging to a team and organization. Critical thinking helps managers avoid both.

Group think is a trap that teams fall into when everyone wants to preserve harmony or avoid the conflict that comes from offering opposing views. When there is a dominant figure in the group, other voices may be suppressed as people withhold input because they believe it won’t be valued. Group think discourages idea generation and innovation.

Unproductive conflict is a trap, too, that teams succumb to when there are competing interests (or the perception of them). Infighting, undermining, sabotaging, personalizing, and refusing to collaborate all stem from issues that could be addressed with a rational approach. Unproductive conflict saps morale and impairs overall effectiveness.

Healthy conflict is another matter. When team members respectfully engage in open discussion and two-way dialogue, they feel more committed to the eventual outcomes. They feel dignified because their opinions were heard and valued. They are more willing to offer ideas and challenge existing processes with an toward incremental improvement.

A manger’s critical thinking unleashes a team’s unrestrained contributions.

Critical thinking generates new ideas and explores them when they’re offered. Critical thinkers don’t reflexively or defensively respond with conversation-enders like “we always do it this way” or “we’ve never done it that way.” When more new ideas bubble up, innovation naturally occurs. In an era of disruption and rapid change, long-term organizational performance depends on innovation.

Critical thinking fosters teamwork, too, and strengthens inclusion. Employee engagement increases when people feel a sense of belonging and emotional commitment. By bringing in all voices and remaining open to truly consider others’ input, managers create cultures where everyone listens more, respects others more, asks more questions, and understands others’ needs better. The research that demonstrates how engagement affects every aspect of organizational performance is compelling.

When a manager exhibits good critical thinking, it also sets a standard for others. Employees who see quality decision making and effective problem solving are more likely, themselves, to develop and use these skills. That means you’ll be able to trust others with decision authority. It means team members will solve their own problems instead of bringing them to you. No more need for managers to constantly “put out fires.”

The obvious benefits of improved decision making and problem solving also boost organizational performance. No more endless meetings to admire the problem but never solve it. No more backtracking on decisions once unintended consequences emerge or because team members revolt. No more clash over how conclusions were reached. No more people feeling disenfranchised by decisions that affect them but they had no part in making.

Obviously, bad decisions negatively impact business results. That’s why one AMA/CMCS study found that critical thinking was the single most important skills of senior leaders. The same study also found that most executives believe there will be even more need for critical thinking skills in the workplace in the future.

Numerous studies validate that organizations with strong critical thinkers outperform those with a deficit in these skills. Unfortunately, the same research shows that there are critical gaps in critical thinking abilities in the leadership ranks and in mid-management (the future senior leaders).

The good news is that critical thinking skills can be learned, practiced and mastered.

n the world of academia, critical thinking skills are considered crucial to learning and development. In the workplace, little emphasis is placed on how critical thinking skills can aid in solving problems and working through organizational issues.

At the most basic level, critical thinking involves teaching employees how to think for themselves. However, critical thinking encompasses so much more than this. Critical thinking is about fostering an environment in which your team is actively thinking about solutions and viewing complicated situations critically — in both an analytical and objective manner

Strategic Thinking: Taking Critical Thinking to the Next Level

While the need for and benefits of critical thinking is clear, there’s another aspect to these skills that companies often don’t address. Some senior and executive-level professionals feel the next generation of business leaders lack the ability to implement strategic thinking, another component of critical thinking skills. These emerging leaders might have trouble visualizing the future of the company and understanding how different aspects of the business work together to create a unified whole.

Like critical thinking, encouraging employees to become “more strategic” in how they handle workplace and organizational issues sounds great in theory but can be hard to implement in concrete ways.

Each business may define “strategy” differently, but there are some easy ways to lay out exactly how you want employees to advance their strategic thinking skills:

Take Note of Organizational Trends — Instead of telling someone to try and see “the big picture,” ask workers to identify trends or patterns in their departments. Training people to always be on the lookout for inconsistencies or problems to be addressed helps them see how day-to-day operations affect the company on a large scale.

Foster a Curious-Minded and Question-Friendly Environment — Just like in school, some employees are afraid to ask questions because they fear looking stupid in front of their bosses or fellow employees. Instead of creating an environment in which there’s “no such thing as a dumb question”, companies should help workers practice asking “smart” questions, as in ones that are open-ended and don’t lead to only one answer.

Make Time For Strategic Thinking and Development — While in college, some employees might not have learned much about strategic thinking. Many degree programs are so focused on building skills that are directly applicable to a specific job, they fail to provide students with a broader perspective on how organizational systems work and function. Rather than seeing this as a negative, companies have the opportunity to teach employees how to speak using more strategic language and give them time to ponder questions and solutions before jumping to a decision.