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Chapter 1 - Lecture notes 1
Contemporary Business Thinking (COMM 210)
Concordia University
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Linda Dyer, Critical Thinking for Business Students. 3rd Edition.
Chapter 1: What Is Critical Thinking?
Introduction: An approach to reading, thinking, and learning that involves asking questions, examining our assumptions, and weighting the validity of arguments. A set of strategies that we will use as we determine whether or not to believe what we read or hear. If we can become aware of the activities of critical thinking, we will be able to use them consciously to think effectively and make intelligent decisions, both professionally and in our personal lives. Critical thinkers are self-aware, curious, and independent.
“You’re so critical!”: In this context, the word critical does not mean negative or judgmental as in our ordinary conversations, but it means to question, analyze, or make sense of something. Critical thinkers are not necessarily negative; rather, they try to assess the truth about a given matter.
Critical thinking about business: The sheer volume of information found in business books can be intimidating; critical thinking skills can play a vital role in helping us sift through the multitude of ideas. As business students, it is obvious that we need to think critically about business discourse to improve our understanding of, and performance in, the world of commerce. Today, governments and not-for-profits sectors “run like a business”, embracing values such as profitability, marketing, and competition. How valid is this generalization of business ideas to these sectors? What are the implications of extending the values of business into other spheres? It is important that we are able to ponder these issues and so understand and evaluate the major role that the world of business plays in all aspects of our lives.
Buyer beware: It is also said that this is the age of the expert. Our reliance on expertise extends beyond the boundaries of the workplace but in every aspect of our lives. Many bestselling books written by business experts claim to deliver simple recipes for success that are based on a rich supply of anecdotes about successful executives and companies. BUT caveat emptor (the principle that the buyer alone is responsible for checking the quality and suitability of goods before a purchase is made) let the buyer beware. Larry Cummings, bestselling business books are “frequently among the most dangerous because they are so well done (that is, well done in a marketing and journalistic sense), and therefore, they are easily read and so believable. They are likely to influence the naïve, those who consume them without evaluating critically their content” (Pierce & Newstrom, 2014, p. 15)
The popularity of the books may say more about the effectiveness of the authors’ and publishers’ marketing techniques or about the insecurity of the people who buy the books than about the worthiness of the books’ contents. A critical thinker does more than passively accept the ideas of others, including the ideas of experts. All too often, experts disagree; their ideas contradict one another. John Micklethwait and Adrian Wooldridge, “For every theory dragging companies one way, there are two other theories dragging it in another” (1996, p. 16) So, how do we decide what to believe? Because the experts are not infallible. Today, we mostly find information online even if they are true or false. We have a clear, though unconscious, preference for information that supports our original beliefs; mostly if our friends sent us information that support our beliefs; evidence that contradicts our view is disregarded. This has been termed a natural “confirmation bias” and is simply the way the human brain works. To be a critical thinker, it is necessary to make the effort to find, evaluate, and perhaps incorporate contradictory evidence into our views. Even more troubling is the increase in false information online and the speed with which it spreads. It can be difficult to tell the difference between online content produced by experts and content produced by people with little expertise, or information that are deliberate and malicious. Researchers have found that false information tends to be more surprising, vivid, or emotionally extreme, and these are the stories that are more likely to be widely shared online. These fakes information can lead to poor or destructive decisions and strategies. Experts agree that the preferred solution to the problem of false information is educating consumers to find and assess the sources of information and to overcome their innate cognitive biases; in brief, to become critical thinkers.
The sponge: Many writers about thinking skills use the idea of a “sponge” to demonstrate a procedure we should avoid when reading or listening to others. A reader who acts like a sponge simply soaks up information. Of course, it is necessary to absorb knowledge about the world, particularly when you are learning about a new field. It is preliminary to the next step: evaluating and judging critically ideas. Being a critical thinker means going beyond the level of being a passive sponge.
Dimensions of critical thinking: The critical thinking process can be divided into five major parts: 1. Purposeful: ensure that our thinking is directed at a significant and useful purpose and that we can state clearly the points at issue. The central claims of business texts. (Chapter 2) 2. Examine the quality of the evidence. Look at the quality of data and reasons that are available to support claims. If they are sufficient, accurate, etc... (Chapter 3) 3. Turn our critical thinking focus onto or own underlying assumptions and values. Evaluate strengths and weaknesses. (Chapter 4) 4. Pay special attention to inferences (a conclusion reached on the basis of evidence and reasoning) about cause and effects. Examine causal claims to judge the validity of causal inferences. (Chapter 5) 5. Analyze techniques of Persuasion through the ideas, words, and structures are expressed in order to persuade readers and listeners. (Chapter 6)
Chapter 1 - Lecture notes 1
Course: Contemporary Business Thinking (COMM 210)
University: Concordia University
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