The Importance of Critical Thinking to the Decision Making Process

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The decision-making process in business is an important part of a company’s success. Making the right decision relies on using the attributes of critical thinking. The following will show the relationship between decision making and critical thinking and how one company uses critical thinking in its decision making everyday to maintain the company’s health and customer satisfaction.

Critical Thinking

“Critical thinking is the disciplined art of ensuring that you use the best thinking you are capable of in any set of circumstances” (Paul & Elder, 2006, p. xviii). Critical thinking involves the capability to think rationally and fair-minded. One must have the ability to employ his thinking reflectively and independently. Critical thinking is more than just thinking "naturally." It involves analyzing oneself and self improvement. One needs to do more than gather information when making a good decision to think critically. Even if someone has a good memory and knows a large amount of facts is does not necessarily mean that he thinks critically. As a critical thinker one needs the ability to determine the consequences from what one knows, to know how to make use of information to solve problems, and seek reliable sources of information to inform oneself ("Module: About Critical Thinking", 2011). Critical thinking in business in important because it helps one recognize the prejudices, false beliefs, and habits that may lead to flawed decisions.

Decision Making

Effective decision making involves the ability to identify consistently and select the best choice among multiple options. This is true both personally and professionally. For the decision making process one may use a decision making model. A decision making mo...

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...sion making process. One may believe that a quick decision is a good, but often when one looks deeper into the facts involved he finds that more problems are present because an important decision was rushed. In the case of Valley Refrigeration and Air Conditioning, Inc., critical thinking in the decision making process of daily service calls prevents costly errors.

Works Cited

Critical Thinking and Creative Problem Solving. (n.d.). Retrieved from

http://www.learningtree.com/courses/284.htm

Kirby, G.R. & Goodpaster, J.R. (2007). Thinking (4th ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice

Hall

Module: About critical thinking. (2011). Retrieved from

http://philosophy.hku.hk/think/critical/ct.php

Paul, R., & Elder, L. (2006). Critical Thinking: Tools for Taking Charge of Your Learning and

Your Life (2nd ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall.

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