Critical Thinking and Decision Making: A Review of Research Findings

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MGMT 20135: Critical Thinking and
Managerial Decision Making
Assessment 1: Practical and Written Assessment-Article Review
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Table of Contents
Introduction......................................................................................................................................3
Written – Essay................................................................................................................................4
Journal article 1............................................................................................................................4
Journal article 2............................................................................................................................5
Journal article 3............................................................................................................................6
Journal article 4............................................................................................................................7
Journal article 5............................................................................................................................8
Journal article 6............................................................................................................................9
Journal article 7..........................................................................................................................10
Journal article 8..........................................................................................................................11
Journal article 9..........................................................................................................................12
Journal article 10........................................................................................................................13
Conclusion.....................................................................................................................................14
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Introduction
Critical thinking includes the analysis and evaluation of objectives, which would be helpful to
form any decisions. The impact of critical thinking on a few particular age groups students,
teachers, and other people will be discussed. With the help of that information which was
collected from different sources to conduct research. Critical thinking will improve the decision
making the power of everybody. It helps to enhance their productivity and performances.
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Written – Essay
Journal article 1
Ludin, M. S. (2018). Does good critical thinking equal effective decision-making among
critical care nurses? A cross-sectional survey. Intensive and Critical Care Nursing, Vol. 44,
1-10.
Critical Analysis
The research is based on critical care nurses and their critical thinking skills for making
decisions. The research has been conducted in a tertiary hospital in Malaysia. The main objective
of this research is to understand the effect of critical thinking on critical care nurse's decision-
making skills in difficult situations. How does decision-making skills make an impact on junior
nurses work productivity? How junior nurses can improve their decision-making skills? These
questions are the core questions of this article. It helps to understand the importance of decision
making and the techniques which would be helpful. It was conducted through a cross-sectional
study. Data were collected from 113 nurses from 7 units in a hospital in Malaysia. It showed that
critical thinking has been affected by age, gender, education level, and experiences and clinical
decision has been affected only from age and experiences. It would be very helpful to understand
the impact on critical thinking of nurses on their decision-making skills and their productivity.
Critical Evaluation
The study was conducted on a small scale. It should be conducted globally. Critical care nurses
have been seriously involved in taking a decision about clinical situations. The results research
showed it too. The questionnaire which used didn't include some core questions of research. The
research was conducted on one of the busiest territory hospitals.
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Journal article 2
Jiang, J. & Yang, B. (2015). ROLES OF CREATIVE PROCESS ENGAGEMENT AND
LEADER–MEMBER EXCHANGE IN CRITICAL THINKING AND EMPLOYEE
CREATIVITY. SOCIAL BEHAVIOR AND PERSONALITY, Vol. 43, No. 7, 1217-1232.
Critical Analysis
The survey was conducted on a total of 442 employees of 2 Software and one insurance firm in
Mainland China. The research was conducted to find the impact of critical thinking on their
creativity. The core questions it included was about problem identification, research of
information and alternative generation. It is the main aim to conduct the research to understand
the impact of critical thinking on employee creativity. They made site visits and conducted
surveys. The employees who think critically, they could generate new ideas. It helps to develop a
fair, equal working environment. It helps to strength employee. It encourages employees to think
of new and innovative ways to complete their tasks. The better working environment could be a
helping factor for the organization.
Critical evaluation
If an employee engaged more with critical thinking, it would encourage them to become more
productive and innovative. The data were collected in the western context which is not impactful
for the Chinese market. It could be considered as the weakness of this particular survey. This
survey put light on the impact of employee engagement on the organization. Overall, it revealed
that both are important factors for achieving any desired outcomes to the organization.
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Journal article 3
HEIJLTJES, A., Gog, V. T. & Paas, F. (2014). Improving Students’ Critical Thinking:
Empirical Support for Explicit Instructions Combined with Practice. Applied Cognitive
Psychology, Vol. 28, 518-530.
Critical Analysis
The study was conducted on 141 economic students to find out the impact of critical thinking
and dispositions on students reasoning performances. This study was conducted to make a proper
analysis of the poor analysis of from students in higher education and to search methods which
will be helpful in that. In this study, they assigned a few tasks to 141 second-year students who
were divided into groups. It explains the impacts of critical thinking on students and their power
of making decisions. It studies helps to understand them as students grow up, they start making
poor reasoning decision. It shows the relationship between critical thinking and students
performances. These findings will be helpful for educators to understand student mindset and
help them to increase their performances.
Critical evaluate
Both critically thinking and students ability to make right choices are connected to each other
deeply. This showed it in the research too. The study was time taking and including on same
course students which could be better if diversity was used. This research covered a huge subject
which explained the relationship between both main factors very well. The process was long and
no space for diversity. Critical thinking can improve the ability of students to think and respond
quickly. It helps them in overall growth.
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Journal article 4
Franco. R. A., Costa, S. P., Butler, A. H. & Almedia, S. L. (2017). Assessment of
Undergraduates’ Real-World Outcomes of Critical Thinking in Everyday Situations.
Psychological Reports, Vol. 120, No. 4, 707-720.
Critical Analysis
This research includes 239 first year or second-year students of Portuguese. It was self –
examinations type research. The present study aimed to explore the psychometric qualities of the
REO inventory. This study explained that life events, age and life experiences contribute the way
one person critically thinks. The study conducted on 239 students. Some of them were not
eligible and didn’t respond. They conducted a self – examination test for them. Critical thinking
could be the main characteristics for deciding the decision-making skills of a person. Life
experiences and events make an impact. Students often make mistake in making any decision
when it comes to higher studies, so it would be useful for them and for educators also.
Critical Evaluation
The researcher picks a subject which was required to be chosen to making an understanding of
human behaviour and critical thinking. The study only includes the CT model which would be
better if they included more models of research. The subject was wide enough to cover in one
research. It was conducted on students which could be better with upper-level age group too. The
impact of life experiences on critical thinking and decision making.
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Journal article 5
Chad N. Loes & Ernest T. Pascarella (2017) Collaborative Learning and Critical Thinking:
Testing the Link, The Journal of Higher Education, Vol. 88, No. 5, 726-753.
Critical analysis
This study includes longitudinal data from 1455 freshmen from 19 institutions of USA. This
present study is aimed to understand the impact of critical thinking skills on exposure of
collaborative activities in freshmen first year of college. The research core aim is to identify the
differences between freshmen who were not in the exposure of collaborative activities than who
got a chance to exposure into that. The methods used in this study were samples, variables, and
data collection. The study explains the importance of exposure to collaborative activities. This
research could be very useful to educators and students to understand the importance of critical
thinking and methods of improving it.
Critical evaluation
This study includes the most important subject which everybody is avoiding nowadays. The
methods which used were very much able to collect data from a long bunch of freshmen.
Including 1455 freshmen to the research was one of the difficult tasks. The methods were
strength and weakness could conduct research on a large number of people. This study showed
the impact of participation in collaborative activities would be helpful to increase the ability of
critical thinking and decision making.
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Journal article 6
Rosa, J., Trolian, L. T., Pascarella, T. E., Kilgo, A. C., Blainch, C. & Wise, S. K. (2016).
Racial Inequality in Critical Thinking Skills: The Role of Academic and Diversity
Experiences. Res High Education, Vol. 58, 119-140.
Critical analysis
In this study, they took data from the Wabash National Study of Liberal Arts Education. This
study is conducted to understand racial inequality in higher education and the impact of diversity
on their critical thinking. It explained that diversity affects students critical thinking, not their life
and college experiences. They divided two types of samples to the larger and smaller
organization and follow the same students from the first year to the fourth year of college. It
explained that racial inequality made much more impact on the critical thinking of students.
These findings are important for those institutions where students from different races studied.
Critical evaluation
The study helps to understand the gap in aspects of college and life experiences which lead to
racial differences in the development of critical thinking and that they do not pay attention to this
thing. The research includes a very strong subject which should be covered earlier but quite
sensitive subject to discuss. The subject and methods of data collecting were strong. Encouraging
students to take participate in the research and take it seriously was one of the difficult tasks in it
but overall this research helps to understand the impact of racial differences on their critical
thinking.
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Journal article 7
Cargas, S., Williams, S. & Roserberg, M. (2017). An approach to teaching critical thinking
across disciplines using performance tasks with a common rubric. Thinking skills and
creativity, Vol. 26. 24-37.
Critical Analysis
The study includes methods of teaching and the impact on critical thinking. The tasks performed
on three different categories teacher education, social sciences, and life sciences. The research
explains that contributing to performing tasks from both teachers and students could lead to the
learning environment. Quantities and qualitative both methods were used to collect the data. It
helps to understand the importance the critical thinking for teachers and that teacher can use it as
a tool for student development. It would very much information about not only for student
behaviour but also teachers in the context of critical thinking.
Critical Evaluation
It is one of the most important subjects to include. It could be very beneficial to understand the
effect of critical thinking on teachers and students. But students' participation was a problem at
the moment. A large number of students didn't participate especially life sciences students. So
the research results were not so generalizable.
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Journal article 8
Butler, A. H., Pentoney, C. & Bong, P. M. (2017). Predicting real-world outcomes: Critical
thinking ability is a better predictor of life decisions than intelligence. Thinking skills and
creativity, Vol. 25, 38-46.
Critical Analysis
In this research, 244 community adults and college students (19-24) have participated. They
filled a critical assessment survey and intelligent test to understand that critical thinking helps a
person to predict life's events better than intelligent people about life. Critical thinking is helping
to improve life quality and it could be taught. Participants have to submit information online and
provide all the required information in intelligence and critical thinking assessment. It showed
that intelligence test doesn't cover whole life experiences and its impact. It is helpful in the future
to understand this subject briefly.
Critical Evaluation
The findings which measured were limited. It explained that critical thinker could predict life
experiences better than intelligent people. The research doesn't allow to make formal results
could be different if different data was used. It explored the contribution of critical thinking in
life decisions. It was just casual research.
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Journal article 9
Alessio, D. A. F., Avolio, E. B. & Charles, B. (2019). Studying the impact of critical thinking
on the academic performance of executive MBA students. Thinking Skills and Creativity,
Vol. 31, 275-283.
Critical Analysis
1620 MBA students participated in this research from four streams. The research was conducted
to analyze the impact of critical thinking on the performance of MBA students. This research
explains that critical thinking actually helps to become better with studies. Watson Glaser
Critical thinking appraisal test has been conducted on 1620 students. This research showed that
critical thinking to have a positive impact on student performances. It will help in developing a
better understanding of students performances.
Critical Evaluation
Research showed the impact on human life especially young students' mindset and life. Variables
can be controlled and results could be affected by that. Student engagement was difficult; finance
students were not fully present there but overall, critical thinking helps to increase the
performance of students.
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