Role of Critical/Creative Thinking in Job and Interview Process
Globalization has a wide impact on today's business world. The business cannot flourish if it does not extend its periphery. Globalization has created innumerable job opportunities, but at the same time the employees at every phase have to face new challenges at their workplace. The major challenge before the employees is the constant flow of information from every possible source. New systems are being replaced by the old systems, and it is taking place very rapidly. The new systems need multi-tasked workforce with strategic approach. What is strategic approach then? The very important thing in the strategic approach is critical thinking. The employees have to play different new roles and so they need special skills for that. In such situation, the major attribute required to face this challenge is the critical thinking. Critical thinking incorporates the ability of taking quick and proper decisions on the basis of collected information and evidences, developing questions and ability to separate facts from false assumptions and thus avoiding irrelevant factors. In recruitment process, this is a common experience of HR department that regardless of the bright academic record, the candidates lack in minimum level of critical thinking. It is because, while recruiting the candidate, the role of the university degree or academic qualification is very less. It has been a high demand from HR people that the employee should have the high scale of critical thinking ability.
The critical thinking no doubt plays a crucial role in taking major decisions, and planning strategies. Along with critical thinking one more type of thinking also has a wide scope in employment process and that is creative thinking.
The term Creative Thinking is different from Critical thinking. Creative thinking is the process of developing new ideas, which are unique and worthy for further elaboration. Creative thinking is associated with brainstorming, flexibility, elaborating quality Creative thinking is not judgmental like critical thinking and it knows no bounds. It is free and it cannot be selective like critical thinking. On the organizational scenario the employee with both of these skills can be on the high rank.
Generally creative thinking is associated with the literary skills such as writing of poetry, novel, short stories etc, and the employees creative thinking can be aligned with his critical thinking. If the person has some unique ideas, they can be evaluated critically and implemented for attaining the organizational goal. It is generally assumed that the person with high emotions lacks in critical thinking. But it is not right all the time. Irrespective of the personality traits, to some extent, critical thinking can be developed among the employees with constant practice and training.
A Case
The Zenith is a popular and eminent training institute. Zenith institute is committed to train the students in English Communication, soft skills and corporate training. They want to expand their service in other city. It is a challenging for them to establish themselves in a new city. They have to start from scratch. Shashank and Megha are one of their efficient employees. This responsibility was given to them. Shashank is very good in critical thinking while Megha is very creative and innovative. She always comes up with new ideas. The company has allotted substantial funds for the promotional activities that have to be conducted for the marketing. Shashank and Megha’s first target group is corporate training. Shashank's first strategy was to get access of small scale and medium scale industry. He got it from internet, local business magazines, and online business directory. He then told Megha to make content for new brochure. Meghana is an artist as well as an experienced trainer. She designed an exquisite brochure exclusively for corporate. The content in the brochure was undoubtedly unique. She used lot of pictures, anecdotes, testimonials, and made the design fantastic. Both of them knew that your first impression must be good and positive. Shashank’s next strategy was to visit companies and convince them for corporate training program. Both of them visited and their brochure worked a lot to bring confidence among the company. Shashank used the reputation and image established by Zenith. Within next two months, they were invited by two companies for training. The companies wanted the syllabus as per their requirement. Again it was the time for Megha to use her creativity. She designed a unique bespoke study material that could meet the requirement of the company. There training workshops thus proved a great success. Within a year, they obtained six programs in another companies.
Shashank and Megha, both are very good employees with critical and creative thinking. Shashank was ultimate in critical thinking and Megha has given him support with her creative thinking skills. Many organizational tasks require both of these skills. Such employees are the asset for the organization. If the HR department should focus on assessing these skills in the interview process, and select the candidate/s having both of these skills, These employees will successfully bring the organization towards their goals.