Management Assignment: Reflection on Critical Thinking & Managerial Decision-Making
Question
Task: Management Assignment Description: The objectives of this reflective essay are for students to (1) summarize, critically review and reinforce key concepts and theories learned from week 1 to week 8 of this unit. (2) reflect on these concepts/theories’ potential impact on students’ decision making, and how these learning are being applied and could be applied in their current jobs, development of future career and/or their life generally. (3) reflect on new insights gained about oneself as a result of learning the unit and propose a plan for self-development.
Students are expected to reflect on the topics (week 1- week 8) this unit has covered and evaluate which topics have inspired their thinking or influenced their decision making. You must pick Four topics covered during the eight weeks. Each topic needs to contain a CONVINCING and PERSONAL justification of why these topics are chosen and how the mentioned topics have changed/might change the students’ thinking or the students’ decisions. For example, students could identify the topic of “automatic versus critical thinking” as a theme for one week’s reflection, and illustrate with personal examples how having learned about the differences has enabled him/her to be more effective in making a certain decision at work. Close to the end, the essay needs to reflect on self-knowledge and highlight implications for future self-development.
Answer
Introduction
In business management, the concept ofCritical Thinkingexplored in this management assignmentrefers to the practice of gathering, evaluation and analysing the information in a methodical manner. As opined by Desai, Berger & Higgs (2016), this is considered to be the most essential part of decision making as it helps in problem solving, strategically thinking and using the intuitions along with recognising the essence of the things with reducing the information into an accurate and clear source. Thus, the present study represents the reflective essay regarding the theories and concepts studied from Week 1 to Week 4 and the way it is significant to my professional career and me.
Discussion
According to the lecture provided to us from Week 1 to Week 4, some of the theories and concepts were taught to get the clear concept regarding Critical Thinking, which would help us in making managerial decisions. Thus, in week 1, the Kallet’s Critical Thinking Framework, in Week 2 the Kuhn versus Popper theory, in Week 3 the Inductive logical reasoning and in Week 4, the Johari window theory has been discussed that would help in making managerial decision by critically thinking and analyzing the imminent situations. Considering my understanding of the theories, the Kallet’s Critical Thinking Framework from Week 1 and Inductive Logical Reasoning from Week 3 are most significant for me.
As opined by Terry & Ervin (2012), many programs involves the critical thinking as their learning goal and California Critical Thinking Skills test (CCTST) is the exam that examines the critical thinking skills with serving as the future for job performance for the manager like us. In this regards, the Kallet’s Critical Thinking Framework, which consists of the three concepts such as, Clarity, Conclusion and Decisions, would prove to be of immense help in becoming adept in critical thinking. It is the purposeful method for enhancing the thoughts beyond the automatic and everyday thinking and is described as analytical, thoughtful, innovative, probing, socratic and logical. Thus, in the words of Michael Kallet, critical thinking is the way of thinking smartly and improving problem solving methods along with decision making skills by not taking the things for granted and examining them going out of the box. On the other hand, as explained by K?rba?lar&Özsoy-Güne? (2015), the critical thinking disposition and entrepreneurship has positive correlations as has job employments. The Inductive logical reasoningconsiders the ability for working flexibly with the unfamiliar or the new information that will help in finding the solutions, which helps in strategizing for entrepreneurship. It is indicated that this theory helps the job applicant or the managers to think about the information given conceptually and analysing them that helps in reflecting the general intelligence. This is the formal approach to logical thinking that includes the making of generalisation that is based on the specific details. Thus, I consider both of these theories to be suitable for me, as it helps me with the way of thinking about my task in an innovative way and critically examining it to achieve the best outcomes.The advantage of thinking conceptually and analytically to the unfamiliar or new situation arising within the workplace that will help in reflecting our general intelligence to handle the situation are the added benefits provided by these theories.
Being the manager of the multinational company, there are certain situations that arise within the professional workplace, which tends to make the individual fall in jeopardy in order to handle the condition and make the company come out of this situation. However, the same situation had arisen within my workplace when the company was adopting the new situation through employing a diversified workforce. As stated by Cloete(2018), the lack of critical thinking skills is common within the management students, which mandates institutions to provide advanced classes for enhancing critical thinking skills. Workforce Diversity is one of the major challenges faced by the managers for accommodating the diverse group of people within one workplace and addressing their different lifestyle, needs and values, owing to the lack of critical thinking skills in their student life, as identified by Cloete, (2018). The employees coming from diverse backgrounds have their own culture, beliefs, tradition and values which may differ from the other and this gives rise to the situation of conflict within the workplace. Thus, in our company, the workforce diversity had also caused hindrance in the stimulation of changes and innovation, low motivation and empowerment level within the teams and thus, resulting in the diminishing quality of the products and services within the business market which had declined our brand reputation in the global trade. Hence, being the manager of the company I had to take up certain steps in order to mitigate such unfavourable situations and thus, the Kallets’ Critical Thinking Framework had helped me find a solution to the conflict.
With thinking critically about the reasons behind the conflict, it helps me to diagnose the problems effectively by listening to the challenges faced by the employees within the workplace and incorporating their inputs for making a suitable solution. As viewed by Roksa, Trolian & Pascarella(2017), the Kallets’ Critical Thinking Framework consists of the three concepts such as Clarity, conclusion and decision. Firstly, Clarityhelps the individual become clear about the issues, strategies, decisions, initiative and goals that are often not clear at the first chance, while Conclusion offers solution and the ‘to-do’ list which are related to the issues arising. The last stage of Decision, according to the framework, gives clear understanding to the individual about the issues; it enrages the individual to come to a conclusion regarding action to be taken to implement the solutions. Thus, with the help of the critical thinking framework, I can understand the issues arising within the workplace regarding the diversified workforceanalyze the issues along with listening to the problems faced by others and help in making a solution to the conflict. However, incorporating the inductive logical reasoning has helped me in logically thinking about the generalization based upon the specific incident faced that is the conflict within the diverse workforce and the observation made from the experiences with analyzing the facts incurred to be false or true. As evidenced by Chad & Ernest (2017), the Inductive Logical reasoning moves from the specific observation to the general conclusions. This involves the four components such as the facts, observations, experiences and assumptions, which tends to make the conclusion. Thus, the goal of the reasoning is to solve the problems, which need innovative ideas and solutions to do so.
Being the manager of the company, and facing the challenge of workforce diversity, the incorporation of inductive logical reasoning within the Critical Thinking criteria helped me to look at the situation creatively and then make effective decisions. It helps me to reach the conclusion of the issues through thoughtful processes by looking at the ideas, potential action and solution from the various perspectives that take into account my own limitations. Thus, both these theories from my managerial training and lecture classes has helped me in solving the problems that has arisen within my professional workplace and however, it has also enhanced the interpersonal relationship within my personal life through acknowledging other’s expertise, practices the active listening, practising the empathy and being assertive, controlling my emotions and cultivating the positive outlook. Thus, this has enhanced my overall emotional and physical happiness which has given me the sense of purpose in my life with promoting an effective and ethical relationship with my team and colleagues with showing real interest and respect to their values, beliefs and culture along with finding good traits within them and enhancing the professional relationship. Thus, it helps our company to stimulate innovation and manage the excellent quality of product that helps us in gianging productivity, profitability and a successful brand image in the global business market.
According to the unit activities, performed during the lecture classes, in week 1, the team formation and its development has helped in me gaining the ability for working effectively as a team regarding any project or assignment given. According toBen-Zvi(2012), the team development and formation activities helps an individual to achieve team objectives, keep the team records, ensure effective communication with the team, allocate the taskseffectively, plan for the project and ensure its completion within the stipulated time with quality while resolving the conflictsthat arise within the team members. I have come to learn about the essentialities of these traits and have inculcated few of these successfully, which allowed me to meet the assigned objectives and manage diversity within the team successfully,while respecting every member according to their values, beliefs, culture, ideas and thinking capacity and promoting the interpersonal relationship with the employees. After the activities executed in week 3, the data observation skills along with the recognising the patterns and making the generalization for this pattern has helped in providing logical process to the issues along with obtaining its specific conclusion. Thus, the activities have made me learn about the suggested skills and enhanced by critical thinking capabilities, which has made me grow with favourable solutions to the conflicts or hindrance caused within the professional workplace and developing the interpersonal relationship with the colleagues.
After the analysis of the activities, the predominant skills that have been incurred by me are observational skills for sensing and identifying the new problems, analyzing skills for analyzing the facts, data and the information regarding the issues andinference skills for the drawing conclusion regarding the information while utilizing industry-specific data for comparison, technical experience and knowledge.Communication skills for explaining and discussing the issues and its possibility of solutions that even improve the critical thinking capabilities, the problem solving skills for analysing and discussing the possible solutions for executing the solutions and understanding whether this solution are going to work or not are the other skills gained by me. According to the studies of Haran & Moore, (2014), skills related to communication, data analysis and inference is particularly necessary and beneficial for individuals handling managerial roles.
Going by the findings of the inductive logical reasoning within the Critical thinking framework, the skills which are gained by me are attention to details such as observation, note taking, active listening, mindfulness and asking the questions, recognising the patterns through data analysis, observation, language skills and emotional intelligence such as collaboration skills, communication skills, mentoring and empathy. However, even after gaining such knowledge and skills there are certain skills which I am still lacking such as meeting the deadline, frequency and location and also the making projections with having effective leadership, efficient decision making skills, management of risk and integration. With lacking in such skills, it becomes difficult for me to manage the time for effective task allocation along with keeping the track of every task, which, sometimes, causes delays in productions. Furthermore, the enhancement of the effective leadership skills, efficient decision-making process and integration needs to be developed more along with management of risk so that the quality of service can be maintained, along with keeping interpersonal relationship among the team members and having group cooperation resulting to success.
My decision-making skills can be improved through implementing certain ideas such as by learning from personal and other’s experiences, clarifying doubts within working hours itself, utilizing data to interpret the probability of success, utilizing the views from employees for innovative and creative designing, as well as resorting to experiential learning, through relevant books, for solving imminent problems. However, along with such skills and ideas, as opined by Abrami et al., (2015), the critical thinking is self-regulatory and purposeful judgment that results in the analysis, evaluation, interpretation along with inference. The Self-knowledge within the mangers is also important which helps them in understanding the direction to which the emotion and the thought of the individuals is going. This helps the managers in controlling their emotion, attitudes and behaviours within the changing environment with facilitating the professional relationship with the other employees and hence, making effective decisions through gaining the concerns of others as well. Thus, with self knowledge, the managers must abide by the self-development process that helps them in gaining the capacity of developing themselves with betterment in learning contemporary skills along with overcoming the bad habits and thus, it helps in the achievement of the organisational objective and productivity along with best quality and effective decision making. Thus, business requires this strategy of critical thinking with using the components like inductive reasoning, evaluation, analysis along with inference(Whitten &Brahmasrene, 2011).
Conclusion
The study focuses upon the concept and theories of Week 1 and Week 4 lecture classes such as the Kallet’s Critical Thinking Framework and the Inductive logical reasoning. The study describes the significance of each of the theories within my life being managers along with its practical implication that had enhanced my interpersonal relationship within the professional workplace. However, the skills learned from the unit activotes, the skill possessed by me and lacking in me along with the ideas of improving the decision making process has also been mentioned.
Reference
Abrami, P. C., Bernard, R. M., Borokhovski, E., Waddington, D. I., Wade, C. A., &Persson, T. (2015). Strategies for teaching students to think critically: A meta-analysis. Review of Educational Research, 85(2), 275-314.
Ben-Zvi, T. (2012). Measuring the perceived effectiveness of decision support systems and their impact on performance. Decision Support Systems, 54(1), 248-256
Chad N. Loes& Ernest T. Pascarella (2017) Collaborative Learning and Critical Thinking: Testing the Link, The Journal of Higher Education, 88:5, 726-753, DOI: 10.1080/00221546.2017.1291257
Cloete, M. (2018). The impact of an integrated assessment on the critical thinking skills of first-year university students. Accounting Education, 27(5), 479-494.
Desai, M. S., Berger, B. D., & Higgs, R. (2016). Critical thinking skills for business school graduates as demanded by employers: a strategic perspective and recommendations. Management assignmentAcademy of Educational Leadership Journal, 20(1), 10-31. Haran, U., & Moore, D.A (2014). A better way to forecast. California Management Review, 57(1): 5-15.
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Roksa, J., Trolian, T.L., Pascarella, E.T. et al. Res High Educ (2017) 58: 119. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11162-016-9423-1
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Whitten, D., &Brahmasrene, T. (2011). Predictors of critical thinking skills of incoming business students. Academy of Educational Leadership Journal, 15(1), 1.
