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For this week’s Written Assignment, you have a chance to practice your critical thinking skills. Read the Between a Rock and a Hard Place (PDF) Case Study and write an analysis. The goal is to demonstrate critical thinking in your analysis; you do not need to be a sustainability or business expert to critically analyze this case study. In your analysis, be sure to include:

1.

A summary of the issue. Briefly, what are the key facts of the case study?

2.

Use of at least one critical thinking strategy or tool to analyze the situation and highlight key facts. Be sure to specifically identify the tool you select and describe its use.

3.

A recommendation to resolve the situation, along with reasons why you recommend this solution.

Summary:

The case study is mentioning the problem faced by many fresh graduates or students today because of lack of critical thinking skills. The text is about Nasira - less than a year out of graduate school. The student finds a job as a Procurement Specialist and is satisfied with the work until a project come u with some serious concerns. It is about a project which must be finished by the company but due to the unavailability of the company’s hired manufacturer- the company has to find another supplier in a short period of time. The only two manufacturers that Nasira found aren’t good enough and Nasira has had her concerns about them regarding environmental issues, employees wage issues and quality of fabric used to manufacture the desired product. Using her critical thinking abilities she must come up with a quick possible solution to solve the problem ahead of them.

Critical thinking strategy: Critical thinking is defined as “Critical thinking is the analysis of facts to form a judgment. The subject is complex, and several different definitions exist, which generally include the rational, skeptical, unbiased analysis, or evaluation of factual evidence.” (Edward M. Glaser.n.d) Critical thinking is basically the ability to think rationally and independently to solve a problem or analyze the situation. It is basically that method of thinking in which a person solves a problem by skillfully taking charge of the structures inherent in thinking and imposing intellectual standards upon them. Critical thinking strategies or tools are basically tools used to help people to think critically about an issue and find a possible solution for it. The critical thinking strategy that I would use to solve this problem would be to “Make the right decision for majority”. Make the right decision for majority- this means that as a critical thinker I would put my egos aside and “think about what is best for the overall organization, even if that is not the best solution for the individual. Their goal is seeking to understand and then making a clear and rational decision that is best for the majority.”(Wiley.S. 2015, Sept. 17) By using this strategy I would try to make myself understand that as a responsible citizen I would never work with a company which has a bad behavior with the employees and whom I can suspect to be hiding something. As a critical thinker it is important to think outside the box and give an unbiased analysis and solution to the problem.

Recommendation: My recommendation would be for the company to work with Midwestern suppliers as even though the quality of fabric is not durable yet its good that bad and rough behavior to employees hasn’t been reported. In my opinion, good communication skills can also be very helpful in this regard. If given a chance the manufacturer should be informed about the company’s ideas and their willingness to work. Along with that the manufacturer should also be told about the concerns the company has and those concerns should be talked out in a nice manner. The manufacturer should be informed about company’s reputation and market competition to help them understand he need of development of procedures which along with the assurance of making durable material should also make sure that any kind of manufacturing shouldn’t be adding pollutant to river, lake or any other natural reservoir.

Conclusion: To conclude I would say that while working with any organization it is very natural to face such problems. Any problem that arises always has a solution. There is always a need to critically and rationally think outside the box leaving the conventional ways of thinking to find a way out. Critical thinking skills should always be practiced individually as well as students should be trained for that in institutions too for development of more polished soft skills.

References: Edward M. Glaser.(n.d.). "Defining Critical Thinking". The International Center for the Assessment of Higher Order Thinking (ICAT, US)/Critical Thinking Community. https://www.criticalthinking.org/pages/defining-critical-thinking/766

Wiley.S. 2015, Sept.17 . “5 Strategies to grow critical thinking skills”. Journal of Accountancy https://www.journalofaccountancy.com/newsletters/2015/sep/grow-critical-thinking.html...