Thinking and Decision Making

Thinking and Decision Making

MGT/350

Thinking and Decision Making

To “think or not to think,” is the underlining statement everyone should consider before engaging in a conversation or even responding to one. Thinking plays an important role affecting one’s ability not only to make decisions, but also the ability to make intelligent decisions. Thinking promotes possibilities; the possibility to change, to encourage, to promote, and to enhance the critical thinking skills within everyone. Without thinking, there can be no growth because new ideas and thoughts are restricted. Three different thinking styles are examined and a description of how these three thinking styles affect the critical thinking process is given.

Logical Thinking Style

The logical thinking style occurs when one approaches the subject of thought by deciding if the combination of thoughts fit together and make sense as one unit. To decide if the thoughts are logical, one can ask a few questions about the matter. Paul and Elder give these three questions to ask in helping one determine if the thoughts are logical; “Does all of this fit together logically? Does this really make sense? How does that follow from the evidence” (Paul & Elder, 2006, p. 95)? Thoughts that do not fit the criteria of these questions are illogical.

When using critical thinking one must be sure that the root thoughts are logical and that the thoughts make sense. If the thoughts are contradictory and do not follow deductive or inductive logic, it becomes difficult to expand further into thinking critically of the subject matter. Logical thoughts help one understand how and why with relation to the topic of thought. If thoughts are determined to be illogical, use critical thinking to dissect them and replace them with logical thoughts.

In a professional environment, logical thinking is a must, especially in a decision making process or strategy. An example of this is setting up accounting processes to pay...