Critical Thinking and Managerial Decision Making

Question: Describe about the "Critical Thinking and Managerial Decision Making". Answer: Introduction The critical thinking concerns with a disciplined channel of thinking, which is rational, clear, open-minded and guided by evidence. The objective of critical thinking is to form a strong base of informed decision making. The critical thinking allows individuals to induce a broad thinking capability, which would aid them in taking crucial decisions in professional life as well as personal life. The critical thinking enhances the reasoning ability of an individual. The critical thinking is a characteristic feature of the active learners. There are many characteristics of the critical thinkers, which help them in a professional scenario. They are able to understand the connecting links between ideas, determine the importance of ideas, recognize arguments and approach any given problem in a systematic manner. The critical thinkers are able to identify any inconsistencies in the reasoning process and evaluate any errors in the reasoning process. They can provide valid justification of th eir values, beliefs and own assumptions. The critical thinkers can take crucial decisions within a short period of time. Discussion The critical thinking deals with the enhancement of the thought process beyond the everyday way of thinking. I have benefitted from the course on critical thinking and managerial decision making. I have acquired skills, which are required for becoming a successful manager. I can clearly understand the various situations in day to day life. I can make accurate and faster conclusions from specific problems and make good decisions. I can avoid mistakes and can recognize untapped opportunities easily. I have learned that for the purpose of effective decision making, three things are essential- Clarity, Conclusions, and Decisions. I have learned that my thinking can be purposeful and realized that sometimes I become partial in my thinking process. I have learned from the course that I should consider other peoples perspective too and avoid biases in the decision making process. I have learned to organize my thoughts and incorporate other's thinking before arriving at a decision. I have realized the importance of clarity of thoughts in a day to day life. I have started to open up my mind and accept any form of feedback or conversation with open arms. When I confront problems, I have started to inspect the problem thoroughly, which eliminates any associated ambiguity. I try to follow a smooth transition in between clarity and conclusions. I have started to believe in the fact that there is a need to increase the intellectual capacity of the brain. I engage myself in clearing my cluttered feelings; calm myself down in times of distress and getting rid of negative thoughts. I have observed that negative thoughts t end to clog my brain and I am unable to undertake vital decisions. I have decided to stop letting the negative thoughts from establishing themselves in my brain. The positive thoughts help me to have a clear channel of thoughts and hence help me in taking better decisions. I have learned to create a vision in my professional endeavors. A vision helps me to clarify the purpose, list of problems to solve and the duration for achieving the goals. It provides day to day guidance to me in achieving my goals. I have observed benefits of clarifying my thoughts process, especially in my workplace. I have started focusing on my gains, more than focusing on my losses. The ability to concentrate on the gains helps me to analyze myself in a better way. It helps me to focus on the objectives and goals of my personal life as well as professional life. There is a need to have a clear idea of the mission of my organization. The main objective of clarity is the ability to solve crucial problems or issues. I have started to look creatively at the situations which revolve in my day to day life. I have started looking at situations from multiple angles and the potential solutions. I have started to consider all the premises about a particular situation and then arrive at a conclusion. I did not consider these premises earlier, and hence my decision making process was not complete. After reading the course, I have learned to consider facts, observations, experiences and assumptions for drawing a conclusion. I have learned that a strong premise should be developed for deriving a good conclusion. A good conclusion or a good decision would give good results. I need to negotiate with the concerned persons and understand their assumptions. The course also made me understand the credibility of a premise. The premise should be realistic, feasible, gained from a reliable source, verifiable and consistent with my existing knowledge. I have also started to consider all the available premises and variables before arriving at a particular conclusion. It is not wise to make conclusions based on the few facts or incomplete information. The decision making process can be best achieved by the consideration of all available information. In an organization, there is a need to do thorough data collection and data analysis before arriving at a conclusion or decision. The course helped me to understand the importance of self-awareness. I came to know that self-awareness is the key to good leadership. I strive to be a good leader in my workplace and hence I should have knowledge of my attitudes, feelings, desires, strengths and motives. I have learned that self-awareness can be created by feedback from others, reflecting my feelings, admitting mistakes, aware of my emotions and others. I have imbibed the wonderful concept of Johari Window and applied the same to understand my relationship with my inner self and with others. I understood how knowledge about self and others could be developed effectively by focusing on specific factors like self-efficacy and self-esteem. I have started to establish a relationship with others based on trust. I have learnt the importance of self disclosure, which can help in creating a mutual harmony between the team members. I have learnt from the Johari Window that I need to increase the vastness of the open area, wi thout the disclosure of excessive personal information. I have learnt that the open area is the most crucial area, which is essential for being more productive, effective and cooperative. The open area is the underlying principle of the give and take procedure that happens between other people and me. The Johari Window is an excellent visual tool to analyze myself as well establishes my relationship with others. It helps me to take better control of my decisions and be confident about my decisions. I have learned that the contexts are important in making my decision making more effective. When I am bombarded with situations, the first things that I should consider are analyzing the situations and select a particular context to which I should direct my decisions. There can be several contexts to a single situation like simple, complicated, complex, chaotic and unclear. In business worlds, I need to understand that there is no one single decision maker. I cannot take a decision alone in the corporate world, and there are several authorities involved in it. I should calculate all the possible risks that can arise from a particular situation before I take the final call. I am striving in a dynamic world, in which I would be exposed to psychological contracts. I have studied the features of psychological contracts such as voluntary choice, belief in agreement, multiple contract makers and others. I have learned to improve my disaster management skills. I have learned ways to manage the incurred losses from a failed contract. The negative emotions arising from the failure of a contract needs to be handled, and I have successfully learned how to manage failures. I have improved my skills of loyalty and stability, which are essential components of relational contracts. I have also learned the role of my employer in the employee management practices. I need to take an active part in the organizational change management and strive to get the best out of the people. One of the important characteristics of a manager is the analysis of potential risks. I have learned the importance of categorizing the risks according to priority and the probability of occurrence. There is also need to evaluate my strengths and weakness, which would help me to convert my identified weakness into strengths. The course also gave an outline to debating practices, roles, etiquettes, positioning, sequences and others, which are important components in the corporate world. The Reflect tool is very useful for gaining a clear understanding of me and the way I am perceived by others. I learnt to identify my own positive traits and my level of commitment towards my professional as well as personal growths. I got a clear picture about my approach to various challenges and the way I interact with my team mates or another person. I have created a personal development plan, which helps me to achieve my goals easily. It would help me to improve my emotional intelligence so that the objectives are fulfilled. The videos helped me to learn about game theory. They help me to understand the rules of competition and cooperation, which are important components in the corporate scenario. I learnt about added values, rules, and tactics for surviving in professional as well as personal life. Conclusion The course was helpful in shaping my mental abilities. The decision making ability is the most important feature of an individual. I have successfully implemented the learning of the course in real life. It has made me aware of myself and changed my way of thinking. I can take effective decisions in the least possible time, after going through the course.