Critical Thinking Styles and Forces of Influence Making decisions is a major portion of the manager's responsibilities. It is an aspect that cannot be taken lightly nor can it be done in a hasty manner. Hasty, careless decisions can have devastating results on the manager's department or even for the entire company. Decisions that are made with deliberation using different kinds of processes, however, can lead the department or company to better and/or more profitable operations. When decisions are indeed made in this manner, the manager should feel confident that he or she has made an appropriate decision and is the best option given the information available at the time. This does not mean to say that the manager will always make the correct decision; lack of information or situational changes can lead to faulty analysis. However, if the manager uses critical thinking and proven successful decision-making strategies, he or she can and should be confident in whatever action they have decided is appropriate. Their own confidence level will, in fact, affect the outcome of their action. Forces of Influence “Managers can be called “information workers”; a manager is a craftsperson whose

raw material is information (McCall & Kaplan 16).” Managers spend the majority of their time absorbing information and trying to process all the information in order to reach a decision of some sort or another. With in the realm of the information system a manager has many sources of where he or she may get this information, including, (a) systems and structures set up to keep them apprised on ongoing events, (b) the people around them who volunteer information and can be approached in search of trouble signs, clues, and missing pieces of puzzles, (c) the values of the organization, which point people in certain directions and define the critical variables in a complex array of possibilities, and (d) the manager’s own direct experience” (16). Management information systems aid a manager in developments for his or her area, which can be a strength or a weakness depending on the complexity of the system. One major problem with this whole process is the manager’s mind to go into what is called by many as an information overload. This can lead a manager to make faulty decisions based on information that is relevant to his or her judgement but fail at investigating the information for the opposing idea or situation. Managers rely heavily on the associates that surround him or her to gather and provide him or her with the information needed to complete a particular scenario. Although the associates may or may not have the proper information it is still a primary source and influence that a manger must use. Another way managers obtain information is by the guiding values and beliefs within their organization. Thi

Some topics in this essay:
McCall Kaplan, Waldersee Sheather, Forces Influence, Russell Sims, Forms Thinking, process information, critical thinking, personality characteristics, forces influence, managers process information, degree tolerance, locus control, process manager’s, mccall kaplan, decision-making strategies, values beliefs,