Introduction
Many companies have a business strategy, a plan to help them succeed and a base to start from. While having a strategy is necessary many times the focus of the strategy does not include the employees and how they have vital roles that can help make the strategy work. Critical thinking is a broad spectrum term, Zoetis meets the spectrum on many levels, however, there seems to be one glaringly obvious level that seems to have been forgotten. The strategy that Zoetis has in place for business appears to have stopped somewhere on the management level. Transparency keeps many floor level colleagues from understanding the bigger picture, hence the reason for many not operating with an “own it” mentality.
Thus, employees who engage in critical thinking become willing to present advice to their leaders. Secondly, employees with strong critical thinking typically embody the spirit of truth-seeking (Facione, 1990, 2011). Truth-seeking, a kind of pro-social motivation for collective interests, demonstrates an internalized desire to commit to the improvement of an organization with objectivity, integrity, and fair-mindedness (Facione, 1990, 2011). Once employees with critical thinking find new ways to improve their work or identify the potential harms to the organization, they will challenge authorities in order to find the truth. (Jiang J, 2018)
Company History
Zoetis took on a new platform when they branched off of Pfizer 6 years ago. The company launched a Core Beliefs foundation that offered 5 distinctive categories. “Our Colleagues Make The Difference”, “Always Do The Right Thing”, “Customer Obsessed”, “Run It Like You Own It”, and We Are One Zoetis”. These purposeful words were created to establish a corporate culture. “As part of the IPO preparation, we wanted to define what would be the mission and vision, making sure these were not just extensions of what we had been within Pfizer.” Alaix reflects, “Our vision and mission not only reflect what we are currently doing today in our industry, but our future aspirations as a company.” (Wright, 2017)
It is my experience that while these core beliefs are excellent attempts to encourage colleagues, many subordinates lack the empowerment to speak up on ideas or suggestions. This tells me that there is a severe lack on the managerial level to ensure that critical thinking is truly a utilized practice. Many floor level colleges harbor the solutions to a problem, however, they are not taught the skills to put these ideas into practice. Critical thinking is a skill set that does not always come natural to some, let alone having the confidence to communicate this idea in an appropriate setting.
Ethical Implications
Ethics come from within a person’s moral sense and desire to preserve his or her self-respect. Legal requirements come from outside the individual. Organizational ethics (which I call Corporate Responsibility Management) institutionalize reflection on those rules and issues, and then create and control all of its processes to ensure that the organization in question performs to established ethical standards. (Razzetti, 2017)
Many times when others have a new idea or a suggestion that they want to implement, one must encounter those that do not want to see someone succeed. Floor level colleagues deal with this regularly, it seems to be a constant race to excel or obtain the attention of management. Some people just want to show up do their job and go home, they don’t have a strong desire to get involved in the “rat race” of success. I can respect these people in the sense that they are usually the ones that can leave work at work and maintain a less stressed life.
Those that want to succeed or move up the rankings of a company, have to have the ability to either be really good at what they do or have established a specialty skill set . Currently, I have taken on the idea that a specialty skill set is the only way I will progress at Zoetis. There are those that don’t want to see you excel because they may see you as a threat. As long as a person who is selfish and self centered has the upper hand on anyone, they will use this to their advantage. The problem with this is that you stunt the growth of a company.
Conclusion
Critical thinking can affect everyone, learning and have the real ability to break down an idea and communicate it, are what separates people. Not everyone has the confidence to speak on an idea. It is my opinion that if colleagues are given the tools to express ideas in a critical thinking based platform, ideas may begin to flourish, that is, if people with the decision making abilities allow others to succeed.
Works Cited
Jiang J, G. A. (2018). Employees’ critical thinking, leaders’ inspirational motivation, and voice behavior: The mediating role of voice efficacy. Journal of Personnel Psychology , 33-44.
Razzetti, E. A. (2017). The Ethical Imperative and Courage to Cancel. . Defense AT&L , 21-26.
Wright, R. (2017, May 16). How Zoetis Built Its Own Corporate Culture. Retrieved from Life Science Leader: https://www.lifescienceleader.com/doc/how-zoetis-built-its-own-corporate-culture-0001
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