Critical Thinking among Business Graduates

Critical thinking is the art of understanding that delves into the alternatives to generate the most feasible answers. Business students should learn the art of focus and thinking to make better decisions that impact operations. At times we become subject to our own way of viewing the world and it is necessary to break the mold to discover something new. Critical thinking can be learned with years of practice and implementation.

Critical thinking is lacking in many business schools in a way that limits the nature of business thinkers to make proper strategic choices. Business schools should provide a clear definition and the ability to integrate critical thinking into their curriculum (Bloch & Spataro, 2015). Future managers should have a solid ability to understand and use critical thinking upon graduation.

Critical thinking is the objective analysis of a topic to form an opinion. This is harder than you think as each person holds all types of bias and false beliefs that seem like the only viable answer to a complex issue. The problem is that bias is based in our personal experiences that are hard to refute because our perception creates our reality.

Those that can combine personal experience, knowledge, theory and the experiences of others can create a different sense of critical thinking. Viable alternatives are evaluated based upon objective criteria that lead to a logical conclusion that removes as much bias as possible. Formal metrics and analysis can help balance personal thinking and scientific thinking to understand events in a real way.

Ensuring that business schools help students make proper assessments of situations and then design appropriate strategies is helpful for making future managers. Integrating the knowledge into courses is helpful as students need to have solid definition and a working model of how critical thinking in real life scenarios. Letting them explore their thinking is one of the best medicines for higher performers when they make it to the market.

Bloch, J. & Spataro, S. (2014). Cultivating critical-thinking dispositions throughout the business curriculum. Business Communication Quarterly, 77 (3).