Document Title: Critical thinking in the decision making process

Paper code: 13041

Question: Assess the importance of critical thinking in the decision making process

To start with, making the right decision relies on using the attributes of critical thinking. The following discussion shows relationship between critical thinking and the decision making process.

Critical thinking is defined as metacognition, that is, one's ability to think about his / her own thinking processes (Tempelaar, 2006). Critical thinking is the practice of gathering, analyzing, and evaluating information in a methodical manner. Essentially, this is a process for thinking clearly through several options and arriving at the best choice.  Critical thinking involves the capability to think rationally and fair-minded.  One must have the ability to employ his thinking reflectively and independently. Critical thinking is more than just thinking naturally.  It involves analyzing oneself and self-improvement.

The intellectual roots of critical thinking date back to Socrates, who developed a method of probing questioning that forced people to justify their confident claims to knowledge (Paul & Elder, 2014). Socrates established that one cannot depend upon those ‘in authority’ to have sound knowledge and insight. He demonstrated that persons may have power and high position and yet be confused and irrational. He established the importance of asking probing questions before we accept ideas as being worthy of belief. His method of questioning is now known as Socratic questioning and is the best known critical thinking teaching strategy.

Decision-making on the other hand, is the process of identifying problems and opportunities and then providing solutions to them (Daft, 2008). Drucker, who is regarded as the guru of management science, stated that the decision is a judgment and that in very rare cases a decision is a choice between right and wrong (Drucker, 2005). Drucker stated that the decision is the choice of which of the two alternatives is the closest to the truth, rather than the choice between right and wrong.