Thinking and Decision Making Team C MGT350 July 25, 2011 Jessica Lowery Thinking and Decision Making Critical thinking is a vital process in decision-making. Understanding and acquiring knowledge of each thinking style is important in any workplace. Different thinking styles will give different points of view to the decision- making process. The three thinking styles that Team C will discuss are: creative thinking, persuasive thinking, and logical thinking. Logical thinking focuses more on validating the truth and reason with his or her own thoughts and opinions.
Wares creative thinking thoughts come together with impulse as well as creating instead of imitating. Furthermore, persuasive thinking is thinking with assurance (Kirby & Goodpaster, 2007). Types of Thinking Styles Creative Thinking “Creative thinking refers to original or imaginative thinking to produce innovative solutions or alternative courses of action that are useful for problem solving and decision making” (Nimalathasan & Valeriu, 2010, p. 9). Everyone can create although one must want to be creative. Some individuals may be better than others at creating although everyone is capable.
Creativity “translates into more ideas, sometimes more money, and usually more fun out of life” (Kirby & Goodpaster, 2007, p. 132) “Creating is taking the old and mixing it, moving it, breaking it, or building it into newness” (Kirby & Goodpaster, 2007, p. 126) Through creative thinking, one can use their imagination to new ideas to stimulate curiosity and promote divergence. Brainstorming and starbursting can boost creativity. Brainstorming allows the mind to flow from thought to thought and bring about effective and creative ideas.
Starbursting focuses on a topic and radiates outward with questioning (Kirby & Goodpaster, 2007, p. 131). The more questions asked, the better. According to Kirby and Goodpaster, creative thinking is crucial to critical thinking (p. 125). In differentiating critical thinking and creative thinking, one must look at how the mind works. “The human mind has two phases: (1) production and (2) judgment. In the production phase, a person conceptualizes a problem and thinks of various ways to solve it.
This phase is creative thinking because it involves the mind in an imaginative and innovative solution-producing mode. In the judgment phase, the person examines and evaluates alternative courses of action, thus making a critical judgment about the merits of various courses of action” (Nimalathasan & Valeriu, 2010, p. 10). One’s creative thinking skills can be helpful to them when trying to problem-solve or come to a decision. Through taking the old and introducing the new, an individual is using the metaphorical ability of the mind (Kirby & Goodpaster, 2007, p. 26) In the workplace obtaining everyone’s creative input to a problem can help come to the best resolution of the problem. Persuasive Thinking The definition of persuasive thinking can be motivating the viewers to consider, go along, or act in agreement with what one is thinking. By means of this style of thinking, if the effective persuader is successful, that individual basically arrives at gaining everyone’s approval. The deed of persuasion and influence has a very thin line concerning the two of them.
For example, convincing society to drink water rather than soda and high fructose juices because it is better for our bodies. This is a reasonable motive to persuade others to choose water. However, it is an illustration manipulation to convince people to drink water because soda and juice will cause cancer. Critical and persuasive thinking plays a major factor the in the place of work. When a new idea or plan comes to mind all thinking styles can come into play. For instance, a pizzeria is bearing in mind to purchase a new oven for productivity.
First, the creative style can be applied to research different oven types. They will compare performance, competence, and effectiveness of all of the possible ovens. The logical style will help eliminate the selection by ruling out those that may not be for a pizzeria, maybe it wont fit or its too expensive for the budget. The persuasion style of thinking will narrow the selection of ovens to the best competent, quickest, and most efficient or even the least affluent, based on customer ratings or salespersons opinion.
Logical thinking, persuasive thinking and creative thinking are styles used in the process. Logical thinking, persuasive thinking and creative thinking styles go hand in hand. By learning how to practice all thinking styles correctly will help one to apply the accurate style in different circumstances. Through gaining knowledge of each style and knowing how to apply it, will help accomplish positive outcomes. Logical Thinking Logical thinking is coherent and uses reasoning and logic. Two main steps in logical thinking are deductive logic through syllogisms and inductive logic (Kirby & Goodpaster, 2007, p. 56) Logical thinking and the ability to identify ones own as well as other fallacies, is the heart of critical thinking (Kirby & Goodpaster, 2007, P. 156). Deductive Logic is a type of reasoning that uses syllogisms, which is a three-step form of reasoning that has two premises and a conclusion (Kirby & Goodpaster, 2007, P. 157). For example: Every living thing is one of God’s creatures Bugs are living Therefore, bugs are God’s creatures Another example: Men are smart James is a man James is smart Not all-logical thinking is valid or factual.
Logical thinking relies much on the person’s thoughts and reasoning fallacies. Premises and conclusions may be true or false whereas an argument may be genuine whether or not the premises or conclusions are true or false. Logical thinking identifies and reasons through categorical, hypothetical, and the disjunctive thinking that is a style of critical thinking. Categorical thinking argues statements that confirm or deny a topic. Whereas, hypothetical thinking has either a positive, negative, or mixed feels about the subject.
Disjunctive thinking demands that the topic is either one way or the other (Kirby & Goodpaster, 2007, p. 188). Conclusion In concluding, logical thinking looks for truth and validly. Creative thinkers tend to be unique and differ from others and allow their minds to explore many options. Persuasive thinkers believe that their opinions are right and are confident (Kirby & Goodpaster, 2007). Although logical thinking, creative thinking, and persuasive thinking are different, they are essential factors of critical thinking.
Critical thinkers who exhibit one of these thinking styles can help a company increase positive decision- making that could lead to increased employee satisfaction and a positive working environment. Reference: Kirby, G. R. , & Goodpaster, J. R. (2007). Thinking (4th ed. ). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Education, Inc. Nimalathasan, B. , & Valeriu, B. (2010). ASSOCIATION BETWEEN CRITICAL, CREATIVE THINKING AND PROBLEM SOLVING IN ACCOUNTING RESEARCHES: AN OVERVIEW. Young Economists Journal / Revista Tinerilor Economisti, 8(14), 7-12. Retrieved from EBSCOhost.