Best practices in Critical Thinking and Decision Making Essay

Best practices in Critical Thinking and Decision Making - Essay Example It involves gathering of information, analysis, evaluation and application of the information obtained in the process of critical thinking, and finally arriving at a final decision. According to Carter (1973), â€Å"Critical thinking is thinking that proceeds on the basis of careful evaluation of premises and evidence and comes to conclusions as objectively as possible through the consideration of all pertinent factors and the use of valid procedures from logic.† Decision-making is a process where the individual arrives at a solution to a given problem by evaluating information. A decision can be arrived at through analysis, discussions and debates. A review of the process of critical thinking and decision making makes it clear that a quality decision cannot be arrived at without critical thinking. In the absence of critical thinking, entire details of a situation may not be available and the best solution may be hard to find. Decision making involves balancing of quantitative and qualitative data and using our judgment to make the right choice. It is here that critical thinking helps. Critical thinking puts our knowledge of a particular situation or problem into a proper perspective. It helps us to understand the subject by filling the gaps in information and revealing the significance of the assumptions we have made about the subject. When there are many options available to us it is difficult to choose. A final and informed decision can be arrived at when we have a full understanding of the subject. Critical thinking helps you to do just that by providing us with the consequences and implications of various options. Critical thinkers use the power of reasoning to dissect complex problems and make things simple. Critical thinking contributes towards avoiding mistakes and making one aware of opportunities available. Critical thinking requires practice. It is not mere thinking. To be a

Black & Decker - Eastern Hemisphere and the ADP Initiative Case Study

Black & Decker - Eastern Hemisphere and the ADP Initiative - Case Study Example Lancaster knows that to beat the competition, the Eastern Hemisphere organization would need to build its own internal capacity which starts from the top, its executives. Black & Decker was fully committed to improving the performance of its Eastern Hemisphere as demonstrated by its commitment to spend nearly $80 million to set up its Singapore headquarters and build factories in Singapore, India and China (Morrison and Black 3). Unfortunately for Lancaster, these growth plans would lead to significant increase in employment opportunities whose large percentage would be for management positions (Morrison and Black 4), which was the Eastern Hemisphere’s Achilles’ heel. From analyzing the intensity of competition in Asia, Lancaster understood that the Eastern Hemisphere would require a new kind of managers, those who freely share ideas and expertise across the company, nurture and develop careers for their subordinates within the organization while remaining fiercely committed to business unit performance. Lancaster’s cause for concern was that there was a major disparity in management styles within the Eastern Hemisphere. Moreover, some of the managers were out rightly bad managers. With so many management styles it would be difficult to effectively execute organizational strategies at the lower levels of the firm. Another concern was the apparent lack of opportunities for growth and development made available to staff members. Lancaster noticed that 70 percent of management and supervisory roles were filled by outsiders (Morrison and Black 4). The ADP would infuse into the Eastern Hemisphere several best practices that would strengthen the management function. First of all the 3600 view would give managers more in-depth knowledge of their employees. With this knowledge they will be able to more effectively assist their staff to grow, develop and attain their career objectives while improving the performance of their business units. Fo r example, from the 3600 view would give managers information which they could use to create better teams, identify employees who were ready for more leadership opportunities and so on. This would reduce the need for seeking managers and supervisors externally since the organization will have identified and nurtured talent from within. Secondly, the entire ADP process increases staff awareness of the 14 different performance dimensions. With increased awareness it can be expected that management and other staff at the Eastern Hemisphere would naturally be motivated to improve themselves which would indirectly lead to an overall better organizational performance. What concerns do Asian managers have about ADP? How substantive are these concerns? Asian managers have numerous concerns about ADP. The substantive concerns are the following: culture, language barrier, heterogeneity of the region and scarce opportunities for development. The non-substantive ones are: managers having limite d time to handle ADP, presence of many managers who are used to performing their duties in a certain way and notion that it is too radical a change. These are non-substantive because they are often cited as reasons for maintaining status quo. On the other hand, culture is among the most acknowledged and researched challenges for global business. In Asian cultures subordinates are not to question their seniors. This essentially removes the ability of a manager and his subordinate to be either open or criticize each other. The ADP cannot work without this sincere conversation between subordinates and their superiors. Language barrier is huge especially outside Singapore where almost all countries have their own unique dialect.