So what is critical thinking, and how does it determine an executive’s effectiveness? Although Spitzer and Evans identified critical thinking as the essential mental ability behind business success, they offered no detailed description or explanation of how it occurs. In order to make their abstract concept more concrete, we need a working definition of critical thinking and a better understanding of its role in business.

Traditionally, critical thinking has been associated with exercises involving simple logic games. A typical question might be: All mallards are ducks, and all ducks fly, therefore all mallards can “what” (a: quack; b: swim; c: eat; d: fly). But how is this abstract exercise ...

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