Topic Question: 125-150 Words with APA reference Critical Thinking needed (see below)

Describe the key management issues in your organization (or choose a large organization most of us are familiar with) and explain how IT can help in addressing these issues.

Critical Thinking I am assessing are your critical thinking skills . To think critically entails having command of these following standards:

Clarity

Clarity is a gateway standard. If a statement is unclear, I cannot determine whether it is accurate or relevant. In fact, I cannot tell anything about it because I don’t yet know what it is saying. Could you elaborate further on that point? Could you express that point in another way? Could you give me an illustration? Could you give me an example?

Accuracy

Is that really true? How could I check that? How could I find out if that is true? A statement can be clear but not accurate, as in “Most dogs are over 300 pounds in weight.”

As a colleague once told me “just because you say it, doesn’t mean it’s true.” In preparing your postings, you need to perform a thorough research of reliable sources. Include citations and references in your postings so I can evaluate these sources for legitimacy (no Wikipedia references, please!).

Precision

Could you give me more details? Could you be more specific? A statement can be both clear and accurate, but not precise, as in “Jack is overweight” (We don’t know how overweight Jack is, one pound or 500 pounds.).

Relevance

How is that connected to the question? How does that bear on the issue? A statement can be clear, accurate, and precise, but not relevant to the question at issue. For example, students often think that the amount of effort they put into a course should be used in raising their grade in a course. Often, however, “effort” does not measure the quality of student learning, and when that is so, effort is irrelevant to their appropriate grade.

Depth

How does your answer address the complexities in the question? How are you taking into account the problems in the question? Is that dealing with the most significant factors?

To achieve this depth, feel free to far exceed the minimum word requirement in order to elaborate on key concepts and conclusions. (I get suspicious when the word count is exactly 100 words.)

Breadth

Do we need to consider another point of view? Is there another way to look at this question? What would this look like from a conservative standpoint? What would this look like from the point of view of…?

We all have biases. Do not limit your perspective to these personal or group biases but explore other ways at looking at the problem. “Think outside of the box” is an adage which is appropriate here.

Logic

Does this really make sense? Does that follow from what you said? How does that follow? But before you implied this and now you are saying that, I don’t see how both can be true.

In conclusion, I would strongly recommend you to spend time understanding and formulating the problem (e.g. think of different strategies to solve the problem) instead of quickly jumping on a particular solution. Thinking out the problem will result in a better solution.