Essential Concepts in Critical Thinking, Ethics, and Organizational Success
Self-Assessment and Critical Thinking Fundamentals
Relationship Between Self-Assessment and Critical Thinking
The relationship between them is that we use critical thinking criteria—such as logic, reason, and common sense—to evaluate the quality of our own work in order to improve our chance of success.
The Necessity of PMU Competencies for Study Assessment
We need the PMU competencies because they represent the main knowledge package required to understand and excel in our studies at PMU.
PMU Competencies and Self-Assessment
Name two PMU competencies and explain how they will help you self-assess your performance or progress:
- Critical Thinking: This helps us self-assess our performance in a logical manner.
- Technology: We can use technology to self-assess if we discover that we are unfamiliar with the use of modern technology.
Why Self-Assessment is Necessary for Students
Self-assessment is necessary because it helps students make judgments about their learning and promotes student responsibility and independence. Furthermore, recognizing what needs to be learned is the foundation for further learning. Thus, self-assessment encourages student ownership of the learning process.
Chapter 12: Ethical Reasoning and Moral Foundations
The Ultimate Basis for Ethics
The ultimate basis for ethics is clear: Human behavior affects the welfare of others. This is because we are able to either help or harm other people with our behaviors. We need to know what is ethically justified so that we will be strongly motivated to do what is ethically right.
Three Key Intellectual Tasks for Ethical Reasoning
- Mastering basic ethical concepts and principles inherent in ethical issues.
- Learning to distinguish between ethics and other domains of thinking with which ethics is often confused.
- Learning to identify when native human egocentrism and sociocentrism are impeding one’s ethical judgments (this is the most challenging of the three).
Separating Ethics from Social Values
It is essential to separate ethics from social values because if ethics and social conventions were the same, every social practice within any culture would automatically be ethical. Separating ethics from social values enables us to:
- Criticize social conventions, religious practices, and laws.
- Reject all social practices that violate ethical principles, regardless of how many people support those practices.
Distinguishing Indoctrination and Education
Education involves the seeking of facts and learning about what is true and what is not. For example, education should provide you with the raw material and the technique needed to know how to think.
Indoctrination is aimed at influencing people to believe in facts without being able to back up these newfound facts with anything but opinion. For example, indoctrination tells you what to think.
Reasons for Confusion About Ethics
People are confused about ethics because they often systematically confuse their sense of what is ethically right with their vested interests. These interests include:
- Personal desires
- Political ideology
- Social mores
Religious Beliefs and Cultural Relativity
Explain how and why religious beliefs are socially or culturally relative:
- How? Our religious beliefs and the level of adherence to those beliefs are conditioned by our culture (Dr. ZM, 2016).
- Why? Because for most people, these religious beliefs influence their behavior.
Ethics Versus Religion
People generally confuse ethics and religion because they see religious principles as fundamental to ethics.
Example: Some people argue that euthanasia is not ethically justifiable because “the Quran & Bible says it is wrong to commit suicide.” This demonstrates the confusion between religious doctrine and universal ethical principles.
Chapter 13: Organizational Dynamics and Irrational Thinking
Three Obstacles to Organizational Success
The Covert Struggle for Power: Every organization contains a hierarchy, whether formal or informal, and hence power is a universal question. Power struggles may be explicit or implicit (a situation where two or more people or organizations compete for influence).
Group Definitions of Reality: All organizations tend to define themselves and the people of which they consist in a positive light. How explicit, as well as how far from reality, these assessments are, may vary from group to group.
The Problem of Bureaucracy: Bureaucracy, by definition, is marked by a narrowing of thinking.
Three Important Conditions for Organizational Success
The three important conditions for an organization’s success (p. 306) are:
- Critical thinking must be used in the conduct of meetings on all issues.
- All policies, rules, regulations, and procedures must be open to being questioned and replaced with better ones.
- The leadership must take a long-term view of building a culture of critical thinking within the organization.
Cultivating Critical Thinking as an Organizational Value
How can organizations, in light of predictable obstacles, cultivate critical thinking as an organizational value (p. 294)?
Critical thinking as an organizational value serves as a motivator to routinely review policies, procedures, and ideas by replacing what is out of touch or inaccurate.
Group Definition of Reality and Performance
How can group definition of reality affect organizational performance (a) positively and (b) negatively?
All organizations tend to define themselves and the people of which they consist in a positive light. How explicit, as well as how far from reality, these assessments are, may vary from group to group. (This definition implies that an overly positive or unrealistic self-assessment can lead to negative outcomes, while a realistic, positive assessment can motivate success.)
Misleading Organizational Success
What is Misleading Success?
Misleading success occurs when short-term gains are achieved, often through irrational means, which ultimately undermine long-term stability.
Causes of Misleading Organizational Success (At Least Two)
- Egocentric thinking (which may result in success, at least in the short term, despite being poor practice).
- Rigid thinking.
- Short-term thinking.
Assessing Irrational Thinking in Organizational Life
Study sample case studies in Chapter 13 under the topic Assessing Irrational Thinking in Organizational Life. You may be provided a similar case study to analyze by explaining what you would do if you found yourself in that same situation.
Case Studies
Case #1: American Auto Maker Executive, 1970s–1980s
An executive identifies American auto manufacturers’ poor leadership as the main factor giving advantage to Japanese car companies.Case #2: Professor and Academic Reform
A professor notices that promotions are given for rapport with students and faculty, rather than objective accomplishments and teaching ability.
Egocentrism and Sociocentrism
What is Sociocentrism?
Sociocentrism is egocentric thinking raised to the level of a group. In other words, it is the belief that one’s own group is superior to others.
Type of Egocentrism Expressed
What type of egocentrism is expressed by the expression “It’s true because we want to believe it”?
Sociocentric standard (wish fulfillment).
Common Psychological Standards in Human Thinking
List at least four common psychological standards used in human thinking:
- Innate selfishness
- Innate self-validation
- Innate wish fulfillment
- Innate sociocentrism
- Innate egocentrism
Causes of Egocentric Thinking
Egocentric thinking occurs because people do not naturally consider the rights and needs of others, nor do they naturally appreciate the point of view of others or their own limitations.
Becoming Aware of Egocentric Thinking
How can you become aware of or understand your egocentric thinking?
You become aware when you make a mistake and later realize that your decisions were wrong. In this case, you recognize the error and must learn from it.
Sociocentrism: The Most Dangerous Form
Why is sociocentrism considered to be the most dangerous form of egocentrism? How can we overcome it?
Sociocentrism is considered the most dangerous form of egocentrism because it causes war and the killing of others, often stemming from a group’s belief that they must act defensively because they perceive others want to harm them. Overcoming it requires cultivating critical thinking and empathy toward out-groups.