Critical Thinking Styles and Forces of InfluenceCritical Thinking Styleand Forces of Influence
... the client’s request. One of the ideas is to divide the workload by salary level. This means that higher salaried employees become project leads and lower salaried employees engage in more regular work. When this decision was made and put into practice, several issues came up. For example, some higher salaried employees are good at the jobs they are doing, but they may not possess effective managerial skills. Therefore, as they attempt to manage a project; they assign tasks without considering their co-worker’s abilities. Also, they do not communicate well with team members, or they just want everything done in their way. If a project is managed by someone who lacks managerial skills, the team members will experience confusion and frustration. Most importantly, the product will not be delivered to the customer on time. Consequently, the customer is dissatisfied. Whether or not a company is successful, its management really has a lot to do with it. A good decision will produce a good outcome. Therefore, leaders who make important decisions must have critical thinking skills. Before a decision is made, they must first analyze the project with a number of questions in mind. What are the pros and cons? Who are suitable for the assignments and how much work can they handle realistically? What are the possible solutions/resolutions to the problem conflicts or issue? They also need to evaluate questions such as what is good or bad? Applicable or not applicable? What are the advantages or disadvantages? What should or should not happen? These questions are a good beginning to critical thinking. Once these questions have been evaluated, the better decisions can be made. Biologist Dan Udovic in his article, ‘Critical Thinking’, wrote: ‘In dealing with most complex problems, we are not likely to find one “right answer” but must weigh options for problem solutions based on our understanding of their potential consequences. In a discussion of critical thinking, one theorist distinguishes between “critical thinking” and “decision-making” on this basis, that decision-making requires both critical thinking skills and consideration of values. We can identify options through critical thinking, but must reflect on out values to decide which option is best. Personal, social, and cultural values initiate and inform the decision-making process from beginning to end.’ Before a decision is made, management should go through critical thinking and questions evaluation processes. If these processes are carried out effectively, a better decision will be made. Before the management made the decision to restructure the division, they should have also gone through these processes. For example, does the higher salaried employee have the necessary skills to be a team lead? Or, are they willing to be a team lead...