Critical Thinking Essay

Today is the era of information culture and most facts come from critical thinking. More and more people are faced regularly with information they have to make proper decisions about. Critical thinking is the vital component of decision-making process and business world. Critical thinking is defined as the process of determining the accuracy, authenticity and worth of data and information, arguments, knowledge and claims. Critical thinking is generating, analyzing and examining ideas, learning to be cautious and sympathetic, learning to manipulate. The key point of critical thinking is to find and marshal good arguments and information, to avoid distortion and manipulation, to define truth and fallacies before product advertising. Actually, it helps expert to develop new approaches, to attract new customers and to retain the power on the old ones. Decision-making should be critical in its thinking and deliver properly selected and analyzed promotional plans, find technical solutions to existing problems, design new production lines, etc. (Feldman 2002) The purpose of critical thinking is rather three-fold: it has to be relevant to the segment of target market; it has to be memorable and recognizable beyond the moment of its exposure; it has to attract attention of indented viewer. In decision-making process critical thinking is a generative and lateral force, because it allows: to examine all ideas and arguments, to separate the ideas from their vehicles, to define false from true, and to separate accurate from distorted, incomplete from complete, etc. (Harris 1998) Example from Personal Experience I really appreciate the role of critical thinking in decision-making process. Sometimes, decision may seem less effective, though in perspective it will appear a winning one. Such situation happened to me. Once I had been working at confectionery. The idea was to put cake mixes on the market and manufacturers decided to put the highest quality into mixes. Women were required simply to add water, but, unfortunately, mixes fail to be sold good. I had to refer to my critical thinking to realize the women might feel guilty for not being good wives as they had to take shortcut to make a cake. I thought it would be better to take off milk and eggs as it would allow women to do something. Despite the fact that solution appeared to less efficient in theoretical terms, it was more practical. It was the first time I admitted the importance of critical thinking in decision-making. (Harris 1998) Benefits and Importance of Critical Thinking Critical thinking gives business experts and employees an opportunity to develop new fresh solutions to problems. Critical thinking gives the possibility to enjoy analyzing data and information and then to develop opinions and conclusions. In many cases employees analyze what is wrong with the idea or on-going process and then try to point out how to make this process right. Critical thinking in decision-making is used when it is necessary: to increase brand loyalty, to increase visibility and awareness of the goods and services that are being delivered, to stimulate increase in sales, to create opportunities to display products, to be socially responsible, and to entertain customers and prospects. (Harris 1998) Critical thinking is used when it is required to develop the habit of analyzing and to think about problematic issues instead of reacting to them. Thus, critical thinking sets them apart and then sees what is going on with them. One more benefit of critical thinking is developing attention. Critical thinking is necessary when paying attention to the opportunities opened ahead. It is a matter of fact that many original ideas are lost because of lack of attention and lazy attitude towards information. Critical thinking helps employees to find the best words and phrases to create a strong impression and impact on customers. Further, critical thinking develops awareness in decision-making process. It means that employees are able to look a round and to encompass the universe of thought. Employees possessing developed critical thinking won’t be fixed within the narrow confines of own perspective. They will be aware of different approaches available to problem solving. Critical thinking together with strong imagination is the best combination for a strong leader, because they allow him/her to play with data and to sort it in many different ways. Simply saying, critical thinking is optimistic curiosity, because really critically thinking employees want to know things. (Feldman 2002) Critical leaders are able to view opposing arguments with interest and sympathy. They prefer to listen thoughtfully and patiently to other workers and consider them carefully. Therefore, critical thinking provides them with knowledge what is going on in information society and with possible ways of verbal and non-verbal manipulations. They will create different meanings and impressions. It is a matter of fact that critical thinking gives the opportunity to form independent judgments that are based good evidence. Critically thinking people are able to not only to collect necessary data, but also to put them together into something new and meaningful. (Feldman 2002) Critical thinking is necessary for decision-making process, because it gives excellent possibilities to expand their own boundaries of thoughts and to broaden their ideas and perspectives in many ways by talking to people whose point of view is completely different, by listening to customers with respect to their needs and desires, by reading books and articles with deeper understanding of changes in society, by understanding different lifestyle and different cultures. (Harris 1998) Critical thinking is useful for driving growth in corporate and social marketing strategies, for building and maintaining markets and to make positive social contribution. What is more important is that critical thinking is the showcase of social responsibility. Employees with critical thinking can find ways how to increase influence and impact on customers’ behavior and how to contribute ethical reputation of the company or organization. (Feldman 2002) References Feldman, Daniel. (2002). Critical Thinking: Strategies for Decision Making. Boston, MA: Thomson Place. Harris, Robert. (1998, July 1). Introduction to Critical Thinking. Retrieved January 30, 2007, from http://www. virtualsalt. com/crebook1. htm