LEARNING BEYOND THE BOUNDARIES OF CULTURAL CONDITIONING BY FOCUSING ON CRITICAL THINKING

In our culturally diverse and globalized world, differences of opinion on decisions often appear to be based on backgrounds and not always on facts, logic, and evidence. Often decisions are based on what is called “cultural conditioning.” That is, our thought process and decision-making abilities are often narrowed by our cultural background or heritage. In our culturally diverse and globalized world, our changing workforce demographics are increasing the diversity teams and the decision making process in organizations. The United States labor force has increased in cultural diversity and subculture differences as indicated by the U. S. Department of Labor Statistics. In 2000, percentage of Asian, Native and Hispanic Americans has doubled from 50 years earlier to today’s 16% of the workforce population. The Hudson Institute projects that the number will surpass 30% by the year 2020. (Judy, D’Amico, & Geipel, 1997).

Therefore is our cultural diversity and heritage conditioning our work teams decision making and strategic -planning process? Is cultural conditioning influencing the dynamics that define the relations among members of different cultural groups?
As Barry (1984) has phrased it on his discussion on critical thinking, cultural conditioning can be a block to an individual’s ability to think critically (other obstacles include acceptance of authority, resistance to change and frames of reference, and hasty moral judgment.) Yet, if one can recognize the role that cultural conditioning often plays in people’s thought processes and decision making, critical thinking can then be applied as a remedy to such biases, allowing groups to develop the best solution possible for a given situation, rather than the most culturally appropriate or dominant one.

This research paper will review the concepts of cultural conditioning and critical thinking and look at the way how cultural conditioning can affect people’s thought and decision-making processes within varying cultures in education.

The discussion and paper will then examine this issue as it occurs within the organizational setting and will provide some solutions on how to address the issue to improve the decision-making process among diverse members of an organization.