Critical Thinking and Managerial Decision Making Assignment Report

This report critically analyzes the importance of critical thinking and its application in managerial decision-making. It begins with an introduction to critical thinking, emphasizing its significance for graduates as demanded by employers. The report then delves into the analysis of an article that explores critical thinking among business professors, investigating their understanding and teaching methods. It includes critical analysis of the research background, objectives, research questions, methodology, findings, and recommendations. The report also evaluates the article's strengths and weaknesses, providing an overall assessment. Key findings highlight the need for improved teaching strategies in business schools to foster critical thinking skills. The conclusion emphasizes the importance of a new framework for assessing and teaching critical skills to enhance graduates' problem-solving abilities and their performance in the workplace. The report references various research works and surveys, offering a comprehensive overview of the topic.

Running Head: CRITICAL THINKING AND MANAGERIAL DECISION MAKING
Critical thinking and Managerial Decision Making
Name of the student
Name of the University
Author’s note

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Introduction
Critical thinking is the ability to make judgement on the facts available by understanding
the logic that exists between the ideas, thoughts and evaluation of the arguments (McPeck,
2016). The paper explains the importance of critical thinking skills for the graduates as
demanded by the employers. The article chosen for the essay is the envisioned of series of
articles that deal with critical thinking in the business schools. The purpose of the article was to
investigate critical thinking among business professors and to discover whether same methods
are used to teach critical thinking to the graduates. Further in the analysis includes two parts
critical analysis and critical evaluation. The first part includes background of the research and
objective. The research questions in the chosen article, the methodology through which the
research was conducted, findings and recommendations for future. The second part includes the
agreeable or disagreeable point of the article and the strengths and weaknesses of the article.
Discussion
Critical thinking was firstly used in the 20th century by philosopher John Dewey but its
root can be traced about 2400 years ago through the work of the philosopher Socrates, Plato and
Aristotle. The purpose of the analysis is to investigate the importance of critical thinking for the
business graduates. The paper also investigates does the business professors have the clear
understanding of the critical thinking and also to investigate that whether proper methods are
used in the business schools to teach the critical thinking to the students. This is mandatory
because the AACSB (International Accreditation body of business schools) stated through the
surveys that critical thinking should be taught to the students a requested by the employers and
the American adults.
The objective of the research is to find the ways which explains the areas where the
professors lack in understanding critical thinking and how the business educators can improve
the learning of critical thinking in business schools. The survey included in the research indicates
that more than 75% of the employers stress on five areas like critical thinking, problem solving,
applied knowledge in real problems and oral and written skills. The professionals stated that the
quality the next generation lacks is the lack of strategic thinking. Therefore, the research aims at

2CRITICAL THINKING AND MANAGERIAL DECISION MAKING
finding the ways through which the business professors can make the students capable of
understanding the concept of strategic critical skill.
The research questions include:-
 How the learning of the critical thinking is conducted by the educators in business
school?
 How the educators can involve the students in the learning process of critical thinking?
 What is the importance of critical thinking learning in the business schools?
 What is the level of understanding of critical thinking among the educators?
 Which years was critical thinking was surveyed and what was the data gathering method
taken for the study?
 What is the sample chosen for the study?
 What are the types of critical analysis studies taken for the research?
It is important to address these questions for deep analysis because the questions will
connect present research with the previous and provide a guideline in conducting scientific
research. Research questions are considered important for the analysis because they act a
catalyst for the research.
In the article, the researchers explored the insights of the faculty members on the critical
thinking. The survey included open ended questions and the purpose was to make the
respondents express their understandings of critical thinking and by not letting the responses
of the respondents limited to predetermined answers. To capture diversity in the replies, based on
the analysis of data, the researcher used analytical tool that is well suited for the design and
purpose of the research.
The methodology used in the research paper was content analysis which is considered a
deep-rooted method in the field of communication and community science. But the method could
also be adapted for other fields and disciplines as well. Content analysis is method used in
research to identify pattern in chronicled communication. Content analysis systematically
evaluate qualitative data into quantitative data. The data for the content analysis can be all forms
of recorded information and communication. For example, pictures on internet and message from
sender to receiver can be items for the content analysis.

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In the following research, the data that is being used are written answers to open ended
questions of the faculty members received during the survey. There is no systematic rule of
analysing the data through content analysis. The inductive as well as the deductive method can
be used for the analysis. Inductive method uses raw data with no presumptions and nom
framework for the research for coding the data. While the deductive method involves coding
template and a framework based on historical data for the analysis. The method used in the
research was inductive because there was lack of planned knowledge on critical thinking.
The survey was conducted on college instructors which included set of open ended
questions. This allowed the author to compile insights about critical thinking for each instructor.
The instructors were asked what critical thinking skills are required for the graduates to help
them in the workplace and the techniques of how they conduct classes to access critical thinking.
The sample size was chosen from five institutions of higher education. Around 32 faculty
participated in the survey. The data was collected and organized according to the perceptions of
the educators and were grouped according to the differences and commonalities of the answers.
Content analysis was used to analyse the data. Content analysis has two categories- relational
and conceptual, both were applied in the research.
The data analysis and illustrations of charts present inside the analysis, shows that there is
disproportion of observations of the instructors regarding critical thinking. Around 47% of
respondents said that they use projects to teach critical skills in business schools. 28% of the
respondents said that they use performance based on the assignments to measure the critical
skills of the students. Nine different methods were used to measure the critical thinking in
students. Therefore, the findings shows that there is a difference in views regarding concept of
critical thinking by the educators as well as the methods to teach and measure them.
The critical skills at many business schools is not understood and taught properly.
Therefore, well-structure and effective technique of teaching and learning of critical skills is
needed in the institutions. The business schools should develop effective strategies for effective
critical thinking because teaching the students with projects and case studies failed to make the
students understand the concept of importance of critical thinking.

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The business schools should create a standard of teaching of critical thinking literature in
various other fields like psychology, philosophy and education, because this will enable valuable
visions for the formulation of critical thinking framework. The different forms of assessing
critical thinking other than business should be assessed by the educators for self-understanding
as well as making the students understand the concepts. Further research should be conducted in
this area to fully understand and remove the loop hole and to analyse the current state of critical
thinking among the educators as well as learners.
Critical evaluation
The report has used many previous research works by different researchers like The Wall
Street journal survey of 479 college recruiters, the critical thinking survey of 2012 which
included 768 managers and executives, the National survey of business and many more which
gives a clear picture of the pros and cons of the critical analysis in business schools. But the
research failed to provide exact suggestions and techniques on how the critical thinking can be
properly implemented in business schools. The research should provide the ways through which
the educators as well as the learners can get access to the critical analysis. The research includes
graphs presentation of the data which gives clear understanding of the research work but the use
of so many articles might be confusing in assessing the result. The questionnaire for the survey
was not shared by the researchers. Therefore, it creates dilemma for the readers to understand the
topics for which the research was conducted. The survey included only the instructor’s views.
The survey should also include student’s perceptions as well.
The overall value of the article was satisfactory but the research did not mention the
research gap and suggestions are only for the educators. The assessment tools mentioned in the
recommendation has been not defined clearly by the researcher. The research only limits to the
business schools, it should explore other fields also.
Conclusion
Therefore, the above discussion concludes that there is the need of creating a new and
innovative framework of measuring, teaching and assessing the critical skills in business schools.
Developing the skills of critical analysis in the students will make them a better candidate in
assessing the job as well as help in performing in the workplace. Developing critical thinking in

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business schools will help in identifying, analysing and solving the real world problem. Thus, the
improving the teaching and learning structure will help in improving the communication
strategies, support the smooth business operations, product development and many more.

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References
Cottrell, S. (2017). Critical thinking skills: Effective analysis, argument and reflection.
Macmillan International Higher Education.
Davies, W., & Stevens, M. (2019). The Importance of Critical Thinking and How to Measure It.
Duran, M., & Dökme, İ. (2016). The effect of the inquiry-based learning approach on student’s
critical-thinking skills. Eurasia Journal of Mathematics, Science & Technology
Education, 12(12), 2887-2908.
Hitchcock, D. (2018). Critical thinking.
McMurray, S., Dutton, M., McQuaid, R., & Richard, A. (2016). Employer demands from
business graduates. Education+ Training.
McPeck, J. E. (2016). Critical thinking and education. Routledge.
Meltzoff, J., & Cooper, H. (2018). Critical thinking about research: Psychology and related
fields. American psychological association.
Paul, R., & Elder, L. (2019). The miniature guide to critical thinking concepts and tools.
Rowman & Littlefield.
Paul, R., & Elder, L. (2019). The nature and functions of critical & creative thinking. Rowman
& Littlefield.
ŽivkoviĿ, S. (2016). A model of critical thinking as an important attribute for success in the 21st
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