This paper discusses the significance of critical thinking for managers and leaders and especially a view of critical thinking as a set of skills rather than one element. Yet, as critical thinking is essential for tasks such as planning, it is also vital for effective human resource management in the workplace. As it is described in the simple-open system model, every organization is subject to considerable external effects which influence all of its aspects (Uhl-Bien et al., 2020). At the same time, according to organizational behavior studies, each organization consists of components, the most important of which are the personnel. Subsequently, as part of the organization, all employees are subject to external forces in their own way, which may cause certain issues. Therefore, the role of every leader is to employ their critical thinking skills to make the personnel work in harmony and collaborate effectively to deliver positive results.
In such cases, leaders need to rely on their knowledge of the key variables affecting workers, such as job satisfaction, job involvement, organizational commitment, and organizational citizenship. Essentially, they have to use their critical thinking skills to maximize all of the aforementioned variables for each employee to make the organization work better (Bush, 2020). For instance, leaders can identify the external factors which affect their employees’ job satisfaction the most. It is possible that employees may feel more satisfied with their work when they are financially motivated. Thus, the leader will need to utilize their critical thinking to devise a system of motivational rewards and bonuses for employees. In other words, by engaging in such activities, leaders will be able to minimize the negative effects of the external environment and maximize the positive ones on their organizations and employees.
References
Bush, T. (2020). Theories of educational leadership and management (5th ed.). SAGE.
Uhl-Bien, M., Piccolo, R., &, Schermerhorn, Jr., J. (2020). Organizational behavior (2nd ed.). Wiley.