Strategies in Decision Making - Critical Thinking and Decision Making

Of course it would be unfair to say that this was just a chance occurrence. Fleming was already involved in searching for cures and medicines as a research scientist. We could say he was already asking questions. This was not a mere mistake, he was able to observe, evaluate, and conclude that Penicillin would work as it does. If most of us were to find something growing mold in our refrigerator, it would be very doubtful that we would excitedly research the growing culture. The context of this finding is very important. Fleming was already in a search mode, and he was able to observe something that happened in the context and environment of a research laboratory. In their book, Critical Thinking: Asking the Right Questions, the authors Browne and Keeley, primarily discuss the process of evaluating information, deciphering the meaning of statements, and realizing that as people communicate there may be hidden “inadequacies” that distort or impede the meaning or context of what is being communicated to us (Pg.7). For the purposes of this class their reasoning and explanation is appropriate and more than sufficient. We could simply illustrate this point by just adding an additional line of questioning to our repertoire of critical questions: what happened, and what is that?

Decision making

Decision making, is the ability to take the information we have available and with it solve a problem, resolve an issue we are faced with, or make a selection. In the context of the present class, problem solving and decision making are synonymous terms. But it is the view of the writer that decision making does not necessarily have to involve a manager solving problems in the context of a business environment; deciding what to have for breakfast or what suit to wear are simple decisions that we make each day. Decision making and problem solving are in deed closely related, but both processes amalgamate more and more only when we are given more information about a particular matter that increases its importance. Deciding what to eat for breakfast or what to wear each day may not fit the definition of a problem although it may have some importance. Bu if we are going on a job interview that particular day, our appearance may be more important today than other days, so we may decide to wear our best suit of clothes today because we want to look our best for the interview. Someone observing us who may not know that we are going on an interview that day may wander why we are spending more time and effort deciding what to wear. Just the same, we might not think much about what we have for breakfast each morning, but if we suffer from diabetes, then deciding what to eat suddenly becomes a delicate matter. It is a well know fact that many people who suffer from illness may not know that they are ill until a symptom appears. Consequently, we may not think that deciding what to eat is important, until we are presented with the new information: we have diabetes. Thus, it is this writer’s view that decision making becomes problem solving only as new information is presented to us that identifies an otherwise simple issue as a problem. McCall and Kaplan, in their book Whatever it Takes, Define decision making and problem solving as it compares to a classical model postulated by management theorists. The model stands in sharp contrast against what he found. He states that “Classical theorists offered what Connolly termed ‘the proper decision-making sequence’: careful definition of the problem, an exhaustive search for information, generation of numerous alternatives, and a calculated choice among the alternatives.” (Morgan W, McCall, Jr. and Robert Kaplan: Whatever it takes, The Realities of Managerial Decision Making. Pg. xvi, xvii, Preface) As related in the preface, the authors did not find much concrete research in the decision-making process as performed by managers in the workplace (which by the way happens to be the focus of the book). But plunging themselves in to a field of research “almost in desperation” for the lack of what they searched (Pg. xvi, Preface), the authors find that the reality of the decision making process can hardly conform the proposed model. Instead of a well defined execution of steps, they find that it is more “like a flowing stream, filled with debris, meandering through the terrain of managers and their organizations. There is no clear beginning or end.”

With this analogy, McCall and Kaplan almost set the perfect stage for the correlation between decision making and critical thinking.

Critical thinking and problem solving: the correlation.

Critical thinking is a vital step in problem solving. The authors of both books have used similar analogies about their particular subjects. The book Critical thinking mentions two major strategies for critical thinking: (1) The sponge approach, and (2) the panning-for-gold approach. McCall and Kaplan in the book Whatever It Takes, cite Ibid describing “a turbulent stream rather than… an assembly-line operation… a twisted, unshapely halting flow.” (Pg. xvii, Preface)

Both analogies involve the idea of either water, or a running stream. To establish a correlation between the two using a simile, we could say that: the turbulent stream and murky waters of the decision-making process may seem at first very difficult to overcome. But if we use critical thinking, and absorb the stream of information, screening out the debris by panning carefully for the meaningful information as we ask the right questions, we may be able to find that desired but elusive nugget of gold hidden in the chaotic mess of the torrid organization, a good decision. In other words, critical thinking is a necessary part in decision making. It allows us to identify the problem, evaluate the information, choose an alternative, and decide. Working in the finance office of a medium size business, this writer finds the decision-making and problem-solving processes not only present, but utilized by some to a high level of skillfulness.