Introduction
The ability to think critically is one of the most important skills for a manager to have. Due to their profession, they are required to take in large amounts of information in order to assess the best cost of action. Determining the advantages and tradeoffs of an action or a strategy is necessary to perform various kinds of analyses, such as SWOT, PESTEL, and others (Schermerhorn et al., 2014). At the same time, the inability to think critically has the potential of sending a company down a disadvantageous path, which would result in extra costs, loss of potential markets, failure to capitalize on certain strengths, and, ultimately, collapse and bankruptcy of the company.
Main body
One of the biggest issues with critical thinking in business is that many managers do not possess the ability to assess different approaches to the problem. Instead of critically thinking, these managers suffer from what is called confirmation bias – when a set of beliefs and notions is reinforced by cherry-picking information that fits into their current worldview while ignoring anything that might contradict it (Morewedge, Yoon, & Scopelliti, 2015).
As a result, companies may suffer from various conditions such as marketing myopia, or even transforming from a customer-oriented business to a product-oriented one. In the end, the company loses its market share, is forced to close up facilities and lay off workers, and eventually collapses, unable to support its own infrastructure. Examples of such failures include Kodak and Nokia. Confirmation bias is one of the prominent bottlenecks in decision-making (Zsambok & Klein, 2014).
Conclusion
I believe that confirmation bias is accumulated with experience and success, as it makes managers enrooted in their own beliefs. In order to prevent the development of confirmation bias, managers must be aware of it and ready to learn and accept new information (Morewedge et al., 2015). Doing so would ensure a long-term competitive advantage for the company.
References
Morewedge, C. K., Yoon, H., & Scopelliti, I. (2015). Improved decision-making with a single training intervention. Policy Insights from the Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 2(1), 129-140.
Schermerhorn, J., Davidson, P., Poole, D., Woods, P., Simon, A., & McBarron, E. (2014). Management: Foundations and applications (2nd ed.). Milton, Australia: Wiley.
Zsambok, C. E., & Klein, G. (2014). Naturalistic decision-making. New York, NY: Psychology Press.