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Lack of Critical Thinking at Workplace

Nhi Cam Vu

Texas Christian University

ENGLISH 10803: Writing as Inquiry

Dr. Stacy Said

October 8, 2021
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Lack of Critical Thinking at Workplace

Do you wonder what soft skills the recruiters are looking for the most when hiring

employees? Or what skill is universally used to increase productivity for the finance

professionals? Many believe that a strong candidate or a successful financial executive is

someone that must have strong critical thinking skills. Basically, critical thinking is a two-step

process of analyzing and evaluating information. Easily, it is about understanding the logical

relationship between ideas. However, nowadays, many employees do not have essential soft

skills-critical thinking skills, especially in the business world. This development is the result of

plenty of factors, which can have a negative impact on Finance-oriented employees.

Causes

First and foremost, back at university, students did not effectively get taught how to think

critically. A survey was conducted by me, asking 25 students majoring in Finance from different

school-year at Texas Christian University about who is responsible to teach critical thinking to

the youth. The graph below showed that about 42% of people think that schools are the most

responsible for the shortage of this soft skill at Finance-major students, followed by “Parents'

responsibility” (30,75%) and “Teenagers’ own responsibility” (19.25%). Overall, the majority

of people think that schools and colleges should teach students more about critical thinking

skills.
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Who is responsible to teach critical thinking to teenagers?

8%
School/College
19% Parents' responsibility
42%
Tennagers' own
responsibility

31% Future employers and general

public

For example, in order to become successful financial analyst, students should have an excellent

critical thinking skills “that ultimately can aid them when finding the best investments for their

company, deciding whether to sell an asset or buy new financial software that may help their

business keep track of financial records.”( Indeed Editorial Team, 2021). However, school

nowadays concentrates more on academic knowledge while forgetting to build up soft. Or in

some cases, maybe schools had tried to teach critical thinking skills, but they failed. The more

people grow up, the harder it is to learn new things. Therefore, it can easily be said that business

schools have missed opportunities to teach their future entrepreneurs to "grow" and develop that

skill quickly.

Secondly, parents are having a significant impact on their children. The surrounding

environment contributes to building up a human. Living with strict and narrow-minded parents,

who always work hard to make a living and only care about grades, is a big problem. In Asian

countries, parents nowadays still require their children to work hard, try their best to get good

grades, and block them from enjoying their hobbies, attending clubs, run a small business or just

hanging out with friends. And critical thinking is not such a popular term or skill used in those

Asian countries. An interview conducted in a paper by Suning Li, asking Chinese parents about
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“critical thinking” had come up with a conclusion: “Chinese parents’ unfamiliarity with critical

thinking was expected while I prepared the interview questions...They thought the phrase had not

been commonly accepted and used widely in the 21st century” (2021, p.84). Not only because of

the cultural stereotype that makes parents think their children will succeed but their experience,

their thinking is also a big stone blocking the way. Parents think they have experienced

everything in their life to be able to come up with the best way for their children to achieve “gold

medals,” however, time flies as well as everything is going to change in a blink. Therefore,

parents’ ideas are somehow no longer well applied, and it may even lead to failure.

However, we cannot always blame education and the surrounding environment when

people themselves are the root cause of the lack of critical thinking. With the advancement of

technology, young generations have access to various kinds of intelligent devices, causing a

distraction to everyday life and abandonment of some good habits. “In fact, most of the after-

school activities of children involve technology. A significant majority of children (64%) watch

television or movies after school. More than one-quarter (27%) spend their free time on social

media or texting with friends...” (Barna Group, 2017). No more spare time reading "The

Bogleheads' Guide to Investing" by Taylor Larimore, Mel Lindauer and Michael LeBoeufor, or

maybe run a clothes business, youngsters, instead, are only limited in a green screen. As a result,

people will become lazier and more inactive in developing not only this skill but also a soft skill.

Effects

Personal career impacts will be one of the first effects of a shortage of critical thinking

skills. “According to the World Economic Forum, critical thinking and complex problem solving

are the two top in-demand skills that employers look for. Critical thinking is considered

a soft or enterprise skill — a core attribute required to succeed in the workplace.” (Alban, n.d.).

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A good critical thinker will have a better opportunity in competing jobs in this globalized and

fast-paced workplace because it ultimately meets the demands of the recruiters and company.

Without this skill, people will meet some differences in recruiting process, or even while

working including planning strategically, researching the data, questioning the information, and

determining the decisions. As consequence, it is evident that people will fail because of their

wrong decisions, and poor performance at work, causing low-paid salaries or even

unemployment. Thus, critical thinking has a tight link with communication. “In many cases,

problems with communication are based on an inability to think critically about a situation and

see it from different perspectives.” ( Miller, n.d.). Being a bad critical thinker will make an

individual become a bad speaker. Employees with bad critical thinking skills cannot

communicate easily in teamwork activities with their colleagues, which will make the tasks

much more difficult. As a result, it will lead to a failure in business, and a lack of connection and

networking at the workplace. 

           Besides, a lack of critical thinking may block the development of people themselves. Peter

Facione in his paper has emphasized the importance of this skill in everyday life and especially

in the self-reflection process that as long as people remain ambitious and always keep an eye on

the truth, critical thinking is still crucial: “Considered as a form of thoughtful judgment or

reflective decision-making, in a very real sense critical thinking is pervasive” (Facione, 2015,

p.10, para.6). People can use critical thinking to free themselves from judgment, negative

thinking, and limiting beliefs that are blocking them from exploring and developing themselves.

Poor critical thinking skills will prevent people to have a better understand and master their

personal thoughts and voices. 

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             In conclusion, the lack of critical thinking skills among employees in the current

business world is a serious problem because of its massive effects. The insufficiency of

fundamental social-relating skills is becoming very common due to the ineffective education

system as well as intuitive parenthood, especially the unmotivated and inactive individual. If the

school, parents, and even people themselves have responsible and incorporate with each other in

developing not only critical thinking skills but also soft skills overall, it will bring various

opportunities to people themselves, the businesses, and the society. It is understandable that in

order to master skills, it needs a lot of time and effort. For the undergraduates or students, it will

be best to have a balance between broadening the academic horizon and building up soft skills so

act now or never. 

 
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References

Alban, Deane. (n.d.). Why Critical Thinking Is Important (& How to Improve It). Be Brain Fit.

Retrieved on October 6, 2021, from

https://bebrainfit.com/critical-thinking/

Barna Group. (2017, August 29). How Teens Spend Their After-School Hours. Barna Group.

Retrieved on October 6, 2021, from

https://www.barna.com/research/teens-spend-school-hours/

Facione, P. (2015, January). Critical Thinking: What It Is and Why It Counts. Research Gate.

Retrieved October 6, 2021, from

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/251303244_Critical_Thinking_What_It_Is_and

_Why_It_Counts

Indeed Editorial Team. (2021, March 18). 10 Skills Financial Analysts Need To Master. Indeed.

Retrieved on October 6, 2021, from

https://www.indeed.com/career-advice/resumes-cover-letters/financial-analyst-skills

Miller, B. (n.d.). What is the connection between communication and critical thinking? Info

Bloom. Retrieved October 6, 2021, from

https://www.infobloom.com/what-is-the-connection-between-communication-and-critical-

thinking.htm

Li, S. (2021, August). Chinese Parents’ Perceptions of Critical Thinking and Its Pedagogy.

[Doctoral dissertation, Walden University]. ProQuest Dissertations Publishing. Retrieved

on October 7, 2021, from

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https://www.proquest.com/docview/2570441563?fromopenview=true&pq-

origsite=gscholar