Critical Thinking Application Paper

Critical Thinking

Critical thinking involves more thinking then most people are willing to do. It is used by many different people for different reasons. Businesses are changing by the day to keep up with technology and the employees of the company must do the same with critical thinking. Having employees that can think critical and are quick on their toes will give the company an advantage. Although critical thinking isn't used daily it is still important to succeed successfully in business and in one personal life.

"Critical thinking can be defined as the thought process that is used to evaluate information and the practice of using such conclusions to guide behavior. Critical thinking merely means that one must not automatically accept the validity of the information he or she is given" (Unknown). One must take the information and come to their own conclusion of what they think the information means. As this may seem like an easy task it can be quite daunting and time consuming. Critical thinking also requires critical evaluation. Evaluating the information is what will bring one to their well thought out conclusion.

Critical thinking is used quite often in the business world. In business critical thinking is usually derived from experience and rationalization. There are many times when one will have to use their logic and instinct to come the right decision. I've had many different experiences where I had to use critical thinking at work and I've come to find that I abide by a couples rules when put in that type of situation. I always try to determine between fact and fiction because that is needed to come to the correct conclusion. Next, I will try to identify the source to see how credible they are and from there I never stop asking questions. The more information obtained the better. Lastly, I stay professional no matter the situation.

A couple years ago I worked for a retail company where I was promoted to assistant manager. My responsibility was to maximize profit and deal with all employee problems. I had a situation where two employees blamed each other for theft that happened in the store. We received an anonymous tip that one of these two employees stole a piece of merchandise. While I thought this was going to be an easy task I was wrong. I thought I could have just reviewed the cameras but when the merchandise was stolen it was done in a blind spot. My critical thinking soon came into play. Between the two employees I tried to figure out which one could have known about the cameras blind spot. Once I figured that out I then started to interview the employees to see if any of them new anything about the missing merchandise. One employee stated she saw one of the suspected employees at a party with a brand new shirt on that we have not yet put on the floor. Once she identified the shirt I did an inventory check comparing