Decision-Making, Enhances the Rationality of

¶ … decision-making, enhances the rationality of decisions made by raising the pattern of decision-making to the level of conscious and deliberate choice," (Paul & Elder 2002, 143). Therefore, critical thinking adds the all-important dimension on reason to the professional decision-making process. In our personal life, we can get away with making decisions based on emotional or hasty habitual reactions to stimuli. An effective professional cannot base decisions on irrational thoughts or feelings. We must make work-related decisions in a rational, systematic, and intelligent way.

As a project manager, decision-making is an integral part of my daily work. Some of the decisions I make are relatively small in scope. The perceived risks for these decisions are small enough that they do not need interfere with the overall workflow. Other decisions I make have broad repercussions. Because I work in the health care sector, the decisions I make have the long-term potential of impacting the lives and well-beings of others.

I serve as the Senior Project Manager for an ongoing study on the usage of pharmaceuticals in hospitals. The study is in-depth, involving both organizational and investigative skills. Not only must I be absolutely meticulous in the way I gather, process, and communicate data; I must also be an astute critical thinker. The decisions I make based on the information I gather can have long-term repercussions. Ultimately, lives are at stake. So too are jobs and the health of the institution itself. In my position, critical thinking an absolute imperative.

During the course of my work, I frequently need to investigate issues related to quality control in hospitals. One of our focus projects is investigating how hospitals use drugs, and how well those drugs are managed or accounted for in inventory. We understand that a discrepancy between amounts used vs. amounts purchased should even out over time. When those numbers do not even out over time, my job is to spearhead an investigation.

Is the discrepancy due to human error? If so, how can those errors be reduced, minimized, or eliminated? Was the error intentional or not? For instance, the discrepancies may be related to poor management or miscommunications. However, I must be open to the possibility of malicious intent to steal or pilfer pharmaceuticals. I also have to take into account the possibility that information systems used by the hospitals have failed too. Ultimately I need to make decisions that yield results that will help the client hospitals achieve their goals.

During the course of an ongoing investigation like this one, I make both trivial and consequential choices. The best decisions I make are the ones that depended on reasoned, patient, systematic critical thinking. For one, I have drawn in team members who can offer advice and assistance in the decision-making process. The solicitation of external support is of the utmost importance because of the way alternative viewpoints eliminate bias.

Working with a team enhances the ability to think critically because it (a) reduces the possibility of bias; (b) encourages dissenting opinions or alternative points-of-view; and (c) encourages rationality by discouraging habitual thought. Critical thinking demands that I become aware of the biases that shape my worldview. My worldview will impact my approach to an investigation, affecting what questions I ask and what answers I am willing to hear. Critical thinking helps me make decisions better because I become more accepting of dissenting opinions.

Yet it is also important to understand the source and reasoning behind those opinions, and not trust someone based on their position of authority alone. During the course of the ongoing drug usage investigation, I have had to check my instinct to make a decision about an individual based on his or her position rather than on facts. To think critically is to critique one's own thoughts and mental habits.

According to Cohen, Adelman & Thompson (2000), incorporating alternative views into the decision-making process is one of the most basic ways of thinking critically. The most general critical thinking strategy involves the following steps, outlined by Cohen et al. (2000). First, we propose certain statements or hypotheses. For example, I have written down my thoughts at this stage in the decision-making process if I have too many ideas. Second, we need to think of or actively solicit counter-arguments. We need alternative explanations for our observations.

So in my situation, I need to brainstorm all the possibilities for a discrepancy in pharmaceutical inventory. My hunch might seem outlandish to another person and vice-versa. Only when all ideas are on the table can the project proceed in a rational, systematic manner. The third step in the Cohen et al. (2000) model is to modify the original hypotheses to take the additional information into account. According to Paul & Elder (2002), irrational decision-making is simply a "bad habit" (146). We can unlearn this bad habit by practicing critical thought.

Being open to multiple possibilities and outcomes is important, as it liberates our mind from restrictive and biased thought. Moreover, envisioning the goal of the project keeps my mind focused. Cohen et al. (2000) emphasize the importance of keeping our decision-making focused on the goals of the project. I cannot make a decision effectively if I lose sight of the project goals; that would be thinking and acting irrationally. We also need to know how much information is known and what the quality of that information is.

When we typically think of critical thinking, we think of how crucial it is to evaluate claims and look for logical fallacies. It is the same way in day-to-day decision-making. All "proficient decision makers appear to use informal thinking strategies...that are not as general" as they seem (Cohen et al. 2000, p. 8). In other words, I succeed at work when I understand my thought processes.

I need to know how to evaluate the data I gather, and also what criteria I use to determine whether it can be trusted or if it is relevant. I need criteria for evaluating my own decision-making process. As a result of critical thinking, I have become more honest about which skills.