hr management critical thinking

• SUGGESTED TOPICS
• The Magazine
• Newsletters
• Managing Yourself
• Managing Teams
• Work-life Balance
• The Big Idea
• Data & Visuals
• Reading Lists
• Case Selections
• HBR Learning
• Topic Feeds
• Account Settings
• Email Preferences

A Short Guide to Building Your Team’s Critical Thinking Skills

• Matt Plummer

Critical thinking isn’t an innate skill. It can be learned.

Most employers lack an effective way to objectively assess critical thinking skills and most managers don’t know how to provide specific instruction to team members in need of becoming better thinkers. Instead, most managers employ a sink-or-swim approach, ultimately creating work-arounds to keep those who can’t figure out how to “swim” from making important decisions. But it doesn’t have to be this way. To demystify what critical thinking is and how it is developed, the author’s team turned to three research-backed models: The Halpern Critical Thinking Assessment, Pearson’s RED Critical Thinking Model, and Bloom’s Taxonomy. Using these models, they developed the Critical Thinking Roadmap, a framework that breaks critical thinking down into four measurable phases: the ability to execute, synthesize, recommend, and generate.

With critical thinking ranking among the most in-demand skills for job candidates , you would think that educational institutions would prepare candidates well to be exceptional thinkers, and employers would be adept at developing such skills in existing employees. Unfortunately, both are largely untrue.

• Matt Plummer (@mtplummer) is the founder of Zarvana, which offers online programs and coaching services to help working professionals become more productive by developing time-saving habits. Before starting Zarvana, Matt spent six years at Bain & Company spin-out, The Bridgespan Group, a strategy and management consulting firm for nonprofits, foundations, and philanthropists.  

Partner Center

• Cost of living
• HR Most Influential
• HR Excellence Awards
• Advertising

Search menu

Helen Lee Bouygues

Reboot Foundation

View articles

Improving the workplace through critical thinking

A lot of the problems in business — and in human resources — can be traced back to a single root: bad thinking. Over the course of my career as a consultant, I’ve seen business leaders make abysmal decisions based on faulty reasoning, and I’ve seen HR managers fail to recognise their own innate biases when addressing employee complaints and hiring decisions.

Let me give you an example. I was once asked to help turn around a large, but faltering, lingerie company in Europe. It didn’t take too long for me to see what the problem was: the company’s strategy assumed that all their customers everywhere pretty much wanted the same products.

Company leaders hadn’t done their research and didn’t really understand how their customers’ preferences varied from country to country.

In the UK, for example, lacy bras in bright colours sold the best; Italians seemed to prefer beige bras without lace; and Americans opted for sports bras in much, much larger numbers.

Transformations and turnarounds:

What to do when leadership fails

How HR can prioritise procedure using automation and digital processes

How to transform dysfunctional teams

Without realising it, they were making business decisions on faulty assumptions and bad information. However, a new strategy based on market-dependent research quickly helped turn things around.

Using feedback to get outside of your own head

One huge advantage consultants have over internal employees is simply that they are outsiders. Consultants obviously won’t know the ins and outs of the business as well as internal managers, but because of that, they also haven’t developed the biases and assumptions that can constrain employee thinking. In short, employees are sometimes too close to the problem.

Now, there are a lot of exercises and routines you can employ to make sure you don’t have blinders on when you’re confronting new problems or challenges.

Perhaps the easiest way to do this is through feedback. Of course, feedback can be tricky. No one likes to be evaluated harshly, and without the proper mechanisms in place the value of feedback may be lost amid negative interpersonal dynamics.

One of the best things an organisation can do is to implement clear and explicit practices and guidelines for feedback between managers and employees.

Feedback should be cooperative rather than antagonistic. It should give both parties the opportunity to reflect on, explain, and refine their reasoning. And it should be explicit, preferably using both written and oral communication to find flaws in reasoning and tease out new solutions.

Making conflict productive

Conflict is inevitable in a workplace. It’s how conflict is managed that can determine whether an organisation thrives. The key to good decision-making in group settings is productive, rather than destructive, conflict.

The best decisions emerge from a process in which ideas have to do battle with one another and prove their worth in group discussions. Without some conflict, organisations fall prey to group-think , where everyone goes along with the consensus.

Again, process is crucial here. The best organisations have clear guidelines and structures in place to ensure decision-making proceeds productively.

Decision-making practices should also include mechanisms for avoiding groupthink, by, for example, soliciting opinions in writing before a discussion and by composing groups with a diverse range of backgrounds and opinions.

Finally, leaders must truly value dissenting opinions. Special consideration should be given to ideas that go against the grain. Even if they lose out in the end, dissenting opinions make the final decision stronger.

Dissenters will also be more likely to buy into a decision that goes against their views if they feel their voice has been genuinely heard.

Thinking through individual goals critically and creatively

A key component of workplace happiness is employees’ sense that they are working toward something , both in terms of overall organisational goals and in terms of personal and professional growth.

Regular reflection on individual goals is vital to sustaining a healthy workplace culture. It also encourages more thoughtful work and allows employees to see day-to-day tasks in a broader context, helping them avoid burnout and monotony .

HR professionals can implement regular systems that allow employees to intentionally formulate these types of goals and understand how their work can be integrated more fully into achieving those goals.

Organisations can also grant employees time to pursue passion projects, like Google has, to give workers the freedom to develop ideas and products beneficial to both themselves and the company.

Creative and critical thinking is integral to organisational success, but it is too often assumed that employees and organisations either have it or they don’t.

The truth is that good thinking can be fostered with intentional, structured systems in place for feedback, argument, and reflection.

Helen Lee Bouygues is founder of the Reboot Foundation

Further reading

  Critical Thinking in HR 

Although we may not have been aware of it, critical thinking has always played an important role in business. Have you ever been in a meeting with senior management making a business case for a HR policy only to find your sound case was derailed? Someone in the room may relate it to something that didn’t work in the past, causing your valid arguments to be lost? If this sounds familiar, that person may have applied their critical thinking skills to the situation to your detriment. 

Opportunities to share ideas with senior management or outside stakeholders may not present themselves regularly. To make the most of them it is important people professionals can identify and employ critical thinking skills. 

It is also an area employers surveyed by the World Economic Forum identified as essential to the future of work across many industries. Critical thinking and analysis topped a list of ten skills  employers believed would be required in 2025. 

What are critical thinking skills?

Before we delve into why critical thinking matters for people professionals and how you can develop your critical thinking skills, it is important to define the term. Critical thinking is a process of conceptualising, analysing and evaluating information gathered from observation, experience or communication to guide belief or action. For people professionals there are three key areas relating to the skill:  

• Critiquing the ideas and arguments of others
• Constructing our own ideas and arguments
• Identifying when others are using critical thinking 

Critical thinking helps people professionals make decisions in a more reflective way. These decisions are less likely to be biased , crucial for HR leaders.

Why is critical thinking important in HR?

HR and People management involves solving a multitude of problems for your business. Critical thinking is important in people management because it helps us avoid making decisions based on:

• Incorrect assumptions
• Unreliable sources
• Unconscious biases 

Having strong critical thinking skills enables HR professionals at all levels to collect and process information in a structured way aiding the problem solving process. 

Critical thinking also helps people managers engage in strategic conversations with internal business partners from professions where critical thinking is a central part of their role like legal professionals, engineers or C Suite management. HR teams are often asked to facilitate meetings around complex or difficult strategic issues amongst other parts of the business. With critical thinking knowledge you are likely to be in a better position to do this but also to facilitate stakeholder thoughts in a more structured way.

How to develop critical thinking skills?

Fortunately, critical thinking skills are not inherent, it is something that can be learnt or improved upon. If you feel your skills need some improvement we have found 6 ways HR professionals can improve critical thinking skills :

1. Question your own thinking

It is natural for all human beings to develop a pattern of thinking that we use to navigate life and work. As a HR leader it is easy to believe something must be correct because it has ‘always been done that way’. Critical thinking helps us to break out of those patterns of passive thinking where little changes. Instead, it asks us to question how we think and look for problems that could be solved to make a situation or process better. 

2. Discern relevant data

The digital age means we are often overwhelmed by data. It is important that people managers remember that not all data is useful or relevant. As critical thinking skills improve it should become easier for you to divide information into what to ignore and what to pay attention to.

3. Explore new ideas

It can sometimes be intimidating or threatening when you are faced with new ideas, especially in such a regulated area. In order to grow as a professional, it is important to explore new ideas. Speak to colleagues or people in other departments for input on how things could be done. Take a professional development course in an area of interest or read up on new developments in the industry that your business might be able to employ.

4. Encourage alternative views

Often businesses get stuck in a cycle of short-term thinking. Getting things done to reach immediate goals at the expense of the bigger picture. Developing an organisational culture that is open to alternative views is an important part of facilitating critical thinking. Don’t just wait for colleagues to challenge the status quo, actively encourage it through:

• Informal conversations
• Brainstorms

When provided with the space to do so, you and your colleagues may come up with many alternative ideas that challenge existing processes and procedures across the organization.

5. Take time to decide

A quick decision is the enemy of critical thinking. If you regularly make decisions on the fly, take time to reflect on whether with the benefit of hindsight they were always the right one. As a people manager it is important to take time to think about important decisions. Particularly those that are going to impact the entire organisation.

If you love a proposal, take some time to think about potential negative implications. Try to look at it from a number of different viewpoints, put yourself in the shoes of someone of a different:

• Level in the organisation

How will your decision impact each of them? If it is a very significant change, it might be worth interviewing a spectrum of people for their opinion before you make a final decision. Take a similar approach to decisions you don’t like, just because you don’t like an idea does not mean it is not the right thing for the wider team or organization as a whole. 

6. Avoid assumptions

The old adage making an assumption makes an ass out of you and me is most certainly true when it comes to critical thinking. Before you unintentionally jump to a conclusion ask yourself:

a.            What are the facts?

b.            Is there a relationship between cause and effect?

c.            Is the language used to describe the issue is ambiguous or clear?

          These questions will help you avoid falling back on something you believe to be true without any proof. 

TedTalks to improve your critical thinking skills

Prefer to learn by watching or listening? The experts at TED have created some useful talks on the subject of critical thinking:

1.  5 tips to improve your critical thinking

Samantha Agoos takes us through a five step process we can apply to decision making in any area of life.  

2.  Encourage critical thinking with these 3 questions

Eric Wilberding shared the Socratic Method of critical thinking developed by Socrates one of the founding fathers of philosophical thought.  

3.  How can you change someone's mind

Hugo Mercier demonstrates how critical thinking skills can be used to change the minds of others. Particularly useful for people managers who have to influence others within the business. 

The most important thing to remember when it comes to using critical thinking effectively is there is no one right answer. You can use this skill to create a number of options, all of which may work well.  Although people management may be fraught with difficult decisions. International health insurance for your expat employees does not have to be one of them. We offer tailor made solutions for businesses of all sizes. Get in touch with us today to discover more. 

Related articles

The potential for AI in healthcare

Artificial intelligence in healthcare has the potential to transform the way we diagnose, treat and prevent diseases.

The Best Self-care Tips for Your Mental Health

Boost your mental health with these self-care tips! From exercise to gratitude practices, prioritise your well-being with these eight actionable strategies. Start your journey to improved mental wellness today!

Creating a Family-Friendly Home Office

With the rise of remote work, many parents are struggling with creating a family-friendly home office.

How to Ensure Ethical Use of AI in Medicine

AI has huge potential to improve patient care. However, the ethical implications of AI in medicine are a serious concern for patients and healthcare professionals alike.

The Case for Home Office Programmes

With the rise of remote work and distributed teams, companies are increasingly recognising the importance of robust home office programmes.

While most people who get COVID-19 recover quickly, for some it can cause symptoms that last for weeks or even months.

The dangers of vaping

Health experts are warning about the serious health risks associated with vaping.

Discover the health risks of vaping, from heart and lung damage to addiction. Learn about global efforts to regulate e-cigarettes and protect your health.

Mental Health and Long COVID

Long COVID can result in a number of mental health issues for patients, and it’s important to know the signs, symptoms and how to manage them.

Navigating Long COVID: Benefits and Support

In this post, we’ll explore 10 key employee benefits and supports that employers can provide staff working with long COVID.

COVID Leave Policy: Managing the Return to Work

Employers are facing the challenges of managing employee absences and facilitating a safe return to work for team members with their COVID leave policies.

How to deal with gaslighting

Gaslighting is a form of manipulative behaviour that attempts to make you question your memories or perception of reality and can even make you think you’re going crazy.

How to Manage Long COVID as an Expat

Getting sick while living abroad as an expat can be challenging. Here is some crucial information to know if you’re an expat wondering how to manage long COVID.

Developing a Long COVID Policy for Employees

In this blog post, we'll explore the different types of acne and give some actionable tips to address each type.

Living with Rosacea: Tips and Tricks

While we all may experience a flushed complexion every now and then, living with rosacea can be much more difficult.

HR Daily Advisor

Practical HR Tips, News & Advice. Updated Daily.

Learning & Development, Talent

Why critical thinking is so important.

Updated: Oct 16, 2020

What Is Critical Thinking

Critical thinking is the intellectually disciplined process of actively and skillfully conceptualizing, applying, analyzing, synthesizing, and/or evaluating information gathered from, or generated by, observation, experience, reflection, reasoning, or communication, as a guide to belief and action. In its exemplary form, it is based on universal intellectual values that transcend subject matter divisions: clarity, accuracy, precision, consistency, relevance, sound evidence, good reasons, depth, breadth, and fairness.

Value of Critical Thinking

Leave a reply cancel reply.

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment.

• Book a Speaker

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Vivamus convallis sem tellus, vitae egestas felis vestibule ut.

Error message details.

Reuse Permissions

Request permission to republish or redistribute SHRM content and materials.

HR 2025: 7 Critical Strategies to Prepare for the Future of HR

To become a trusted workforce advisor, HR must focus on seven critical areas, including business strategy, analytics and, of course, people.

Introduction

​Technology is freeing up HR to take on bigger-picture matters, making the field more exciting, more demanding and perhaps more competitive as well. "We used to be about compliance, party planning and benefits," says Tracie Sponenberg, SHRM-SCP, senior vice president of human resources at The Granite Group, a wholesale plumbing supplies distributor in Concord, N.H. "To some extent, there are still some companies that see HR as a purely tactical kind of role. But the good ones, the smart ones, see HR as a strategic partner." 

We’ve Come a Long Way

​Even if your job title or your responsibilities have yet to change, it's imperative to start adapting to the new reality now. You can begin by enhancing your skills in seven critical areas that analysts say are key to future success in the profession and likely to be widely practiced by 2025. They include business strategy, analytics and, of course, people.

[SHRM members-only resource: Accelerate Your Career ]

1. Embrace Technology and Analytics

2. understand how the company succeeds, ​hr jobs of the future, 3. stay focused on people.

​With competition fierce for good talent, successful HR managers need to give top workers a reason to come to work for them. "If you're not in a global business now, you're going to be competing with global businesses for the very best employees," says Judy Collister, executive vice president and human resource officer at Cleveland-based Park Place Technologies, a data center support company. "You need to create an environment where people enjoy being there and can't imagine being anywhere else."

4. Be Ready for the New Workforce

​The 2025 workforce will include not just transient workers (60 percent of Millennials told Gallup they are open to new job opportunities) but also gig workers who pop in and out of jobs on a daily basis. In addition, HR will need to help assess which tasks throughout the organization can be automated and then reskill those whose jobs are affected by automation. A recent Willis Towers Watson survey found that more than half of employers say it will take "breakthrough approaches in HR's role" to deal with automation and digitalization. Meanwhile, some of HR's remote workers will increasingly be very remote―as in, seven or 10 time zones away―as globalization leads to an increasingly diverse workforce.

5. Market a Modern Benefits Package

​Attracting and keeping talent involves offering (and administering) a benefits package that appeals to the modern worker. That includes not just parental leave and flextime but also caregiver leave, expanded fertility benefits, gender reassignment and transformation assistance, financial wellness programs, and a slew of benefits that support critical life events, says Kathie Patterson, chief human resources officer at Ally Financial Services in Detroit. "Recruitment marketing exists now, but given the demographics and importance of attracting talent, more organizations could add those [benefits]," she says.

6. Stay Abreast of Compliance Issues

7. be certified (or update your skill set), related articles.

Rising Demand for Workforce AI Skills Leads to Calls for Upskilling

As artificial intelligence technology continues to develop, the demand for workers with the ability to work alongside and manage AI systems will increase. This means that workers who are not able to adapt and learn these new skills will be left behind in the job market.

Employers Want New Grads with AI Experience, Knowledge

A vast majority of U.S. professionals say students entering the workforce should have experience using AI and be prepared to use it in the workplace, and they expect higher education to play a critical role in that preparation.

The Pros and Cons of ‘Dry’ Promotions

Hr daily newsletter.

New, trends and analysis, as well as breaking news alerts, to help HR professionals do their jobs better each business day.

Success title

Success caption

• Integrations
• HR Analytics 101
• Employee Management 101
• Cheat Sheets
• Case Studies
• ROI Calculator

12 HR Critical Success Factors for Forward-Thinking Leaders

As a human resources leader, you’re responsible for delivering programs that improve the employee experience and help the organization accomplish its goals. Achieving success in those areas requires meeting the expectations of employees and senior leaders alike. 

As one HR consultant described in a recent SHRM article , “CEOs want HR to hire people more quickly and keep them longer. They want help achieving big goals for growth or turnaround. They want a change agent, someone with ideas and energy and patience to make things happen. They want someone who questions the status quo.” 

With the right tools and support, you can successfully exceed expectations and deliver value along all the stages of the employee lifecycle journey . Here are 12 critical HR success factors to guide you:

Top Critical HR Success Factors

At the heart of every organization is its culture—the attitudes and behaviors defining how things get done. When you incorporate activities to build a great company culture, your employees benefit, and you also attract candidates with similar values and cultural ideals.

You can improve company culture by encouraging team-building activities and clear communication at all levels of the organization. You can also provide employees with tools that make their lives easier at work, for example, human capital management software that features employee self-service access.

2. Talent Acquisition

Good talent is hard to find, particularly in a tight labor market. According to an XpertHR survey , almost a third of surveyed HR professionals named recruiting and hiring as their most critical challenge. Of those, 51 percent said they were “extremely challenged” in finding high-quality candidates.

A well-crafted recruitment strategy and process will help you source, select, and hire the talent required for your organization to succeed. Available HR software provides reporting and data management tools to help you understand the effectiveness of your recruiting activities and keep better track of candidates in your talent pipeline.

3. Workforce Planning

Being a forward-thinking HR leader means anticipating future talent needs. A critical part of your success relies on being prepared to help the organization find new talent or reskill existing employees, so they can tackle change and new ways of working. When you have all-in-one HR technology to help you manage your workforce from one convenient location, you can develop a more complete picture of your company’s staffing and skill development needs.

View our ultimate guide to employee management and see how streamlining HR functions provides a competitive advantage. >>

4. Compensation

A recent Achievers study found that 52 percent of employees are looking or would consider leaving their company because of compensation . To engage and retain your employees, you need a competitive mix of salary and other rewards. To understand workforce compensation trends and plan for salary adjustments and incentives, you could benefit from an integrated payroll system that allows you to track employee pay alongside performance and other factors.

5. Benefits and Employee Wellness

The safety and wellbeing of employees are always important, but due to COVID-19, your organization may be facing new challenges in keeping employees healthy and safe. Whether your employees are working remotely or beginning to return to the office , you may need to consider a different or new mix of benefits to support their health and wellness. Some of the benefit changes you may want to consider include:

• Expanded flexible work arrangements
• Additional paid time off and family leave options
• Virtual medical care coverage

6. Training 

Employee training can take many forms, from classroom training to on-the-job learning. Not only do you need to track training participation and costs , but you also want to understand the effectiveness of your existing training . With a clear picture of employee skill levels and prior training attendance, you can identify which new programs and experiences will aid further learning. 

7. Leadership Development

A strong pipeline of company leaders helps ensure a sufficient number of managers for key roles, and it helps your organization prepare for the future. Tracking HR metrics , such as turnover by manager, can help you understand the strength of your managers and where they may need help leading and retaining members of their team. 

The following programs and activities can help you develop leaders in your organization:

• Mentorship programs
• Stretch assignments
• Rotational programs
• Training and coaching

8. Employee Engagement

According to Gallup , only 35 percent of U.S. employees are engaged or highly committed to their work and organization. To improve engagement, you first need to understand which aspects of the employee experience are engaging for your employees, and which are not. Conducting engagement surveys and tracking trends in employee responses over time can help you identify the drivers of engagement in your organization and how to build greater commitment among employees.

9. Employee Relations

If your organization is experiencing issues related to harassment, team communication, or managers who struggle to lead, it can hurt employee retention and satisfaction. The success of your HR function relies on the timely and fair resolution of those issues. Managing employee relations issues helps employees see the value of HR, and also prevents smaller problems from snowballing into bigger ones.

10. Performance Management 

A robust performance management program helps you understand employee effectiveness and productivity. It also helps you identify areas where employees need improvement. By using HR software with a module for performance management , you can keep track of employee ratings, feedback notes, and productivity reports. When it’s time for performance reviews, managers will have easy access to historical performance data for their employees.

11. Diversity and Inclusion 

Creating an environment that brings together different people, experiences, and ways of working supports creative decision-making and a culture of mutual respect. Whether you’re designing a new diversity and inclusion program or you need help with standard EEOC reporting , HR software can help you better understand the demographics of your organization and how to build a more inclusive workplace.

12. Compliance

The SHRM digest of federal labor laws lists 58 distinct federal employment laws covering just about every aspect of HR. There are also state laws and federal agencies that set rules for the workplace. To meet your year-round compliance obligations , it’s essential to keep track of regulations impacting the following areas: 

• Benefits and COBRA administration
• Paid leaves
• Workers compensation

Apply HR Success Factors and Exceed Employee Expectations

Meeting the needs and expectations of your workforce is no easy feat, but the right tools can strengthen your chances of success in the top HR success factors discussed above. All-in-one workforce management software can provide the automation support and reporting capability you need to exceed employee expectations and support their needs. To learn more about how you can build an environment that engages and retains your employees, read our e-book, Exceeding Employee Expectations .

Critical Thinking Case

Zappos, holacracy, and human resource management.

In 2013, Zappos was performing well under the leadership of Tony Hsieh and was getting ready to take on a new challenge that would, among other things, push the boundaries of traditional human resource management. Although business was booming, Tony Hsieh was not a man who wanted to be in status quo mode for too long, so he set out to implement an organizational and cultural change called Holacracy. Zappos was the largest and best known of the 300 companies worldwide that had adopted Holacracy—a new form of hierarchy that is a “flexible, self-governing structure, where there are no fixed jobs but simply temporary functional roles.”

In a Holacracy, the main unit is called the “circle,” which is a distinct yet fluid team. Leadership became similarly fluid with the changing circles. Circles are designed to meet certain goals and are created and disbanded as project needs change. The intent is that people self-select to work on projects that they want to work on and that they have the skills for. Tony also removed all previous titles. The role of manager went away and was replaced with three roles: “lead links” would focus on guiding the work in the circles; “mentors” would work on employee growth and development; and “compensation appraisers” would work on determining employees’ salaries. In 2015, he decided to further break down the divisions between many of the functions, changing them all to business-centric circles. There were changes to almost every human resource management structure that you can think of, and there were quite a few growing pains within the organization. Zappos began to look at employee pay, and Holacracy seemed to have a steep learning curve for many people, even though a “constitution” was created to provide guidance. Zappos was also facing 14% attrition, as some of the rapid and excessive changes were wearing on employees. Tony was a visionary, but for a lot of people it was hard to catch up and see the same vision.

From a human resource management perspective, there could be some positive attributes of a Holacracy if it were to succeed—such as building engagement and helping to build talent and skill sets. There were also a few risks that needed to be dealt with carefully. When you create an organization in which people don’t have set teams or projects but instead determine what they want to work on, one of the big challenges is going to be determining the level and nature of their role, as well as the compensation for that role. If Holacracy is compared to a consulting organization, in which consultants are brought into different projects with different requirements, it is critical to first determine the level of their consultant role (based on their education, skills, experience, etc.) so that they can properly move from project to project yet maintain a role of a certain level. That level is then tied to a specific pay scale, so the same consultant will receive the same salary no matter which project they are on. If that consultant is “on the bench,” or not placed on a project (or self-placed, in the case of Holacracy), then after a certain defined period that consultant may be at risk of termination.

Holacracy is in some ways a challenging concept to think about, and self-management may not be able to work in all environments. A company that is implementing a Holacracy may find that they are able to master the process of self-selection of work in the “circles.” The “task” part of the equation may not be much of an issue once people figure out how to navigate the circles. However, the “people” part of the equation may need some work. The greatest challenge may lie in the structures and processes of human resource management that ultimately define the employer-employee relationship.

• What are some of the human resource management processes that might be enhanced by a Holacracy? What processes will be challenged?
• Do you think that a Holacracy can be compared to a consulting company? How are they similar,s and how are they different? Can you think of work areas or industries in which Holacracy would be very difficult to implement?

Sources: Askin and Petriglieri, “Tony Hsieh at Zappos: Structure, Culture, and Change ”, INSEAD Business School Press, 2016.

As an Amazon Associate we earn from qualifying purchases.

This book may not be used in the training of large language models or otherwise be ingested into large language models or generative AI offerings without OpenStax's permission.

Want to cite, share, or modify this book? This book uses the Creative Commons Attribution License and you must attribute OpenStax.

Access for free at https://openstax.org/books/principles-management/pages/1-introduction

• Authors: David S. Bright, Anastasia H. Cortes
• Publisher/website: OpenStax
• Book title: Principles of Management
• Publication date: Mar 20, 2019
• Location: Houston, Texas
• Book URL: https://openstax.org/books/principles-management/pages/1-introduction
• Section URL: https://openstax.org/books/principles-management/pages/11-critical-thinking-case

© Jan 9, 2024 OpenStax. Textbook content produced by OpenStax is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution License . The OpenStax name, OpenStax logo, OpenStax book covers, OpenStax CNX name, and OpenStax CNX logo are not subject to the Creative Commons license and may not be reproduced without the prior and express written consent of Rice University.

• Click to view our Accessibility Policy
• Skip to content

Oracle Helps Healthcare Organizations Solve Critical Supply Chain, HR, and Finance Challenges

New healthcare-specific capabilities in Oracle Fusion Cloud Applications Suite help healthcare organizations drive operational efficiency, empower employees, and improve patient outcomes

Oracle is introducing new capabilities to Oracle Fusion Cloud Applications Suite to help healthcare organizations drive operational efficiency, empower employees, and improve patient outcomes. The new capabilities within Oracle Fusion Cloud Supply Chain and Manufacturing (SCM) , Oracle Fusion Cloud Human Capital Management (HCM) , and Oracle Fusion Cloud Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) , will enable healthcare organizations to streamline processes, support increased productivity, help reduce costs, foster employee growth, and better serve patient needs.

“Healthcare organizations are under pressure to deliver a consistently high standard of care while controlling costs and addressing employee needs,” said Steve Miranda, executive vice president, applications development, Oracle. “The latest additions to Oracle Cloud SCM, Oracle Cloud HCM, and Oracle Cloud ERP will help our customers build more efficient and resilient supply chain processes, enhance the employee experience, improve planning, and better support frontline workers so they can focus on what matters most—delivering high-quality care to their patients.”

Streamline Procurement with Oracle Healthcare Marketplace

To drive more efficient procurement processes and help healthcare organizations better manage spend, Oracle is introducing Oracle Healthcare Marketplace , a B2C shopping experience within Oracle Fusion Cloud Procurement . Oracle Healthcare Marketplace provides a progressive search capability that helps healthcare organizations to:

• Maximize on-contract spend: By integrating all available contracts, including Group Purchasing Organization (GPO), and locally, regionally, and nationally negotiated contracts, Oracle Healthcare Marketplace helps healthcare organizations easily access their full portfolio of contracts and supplier sources. This enables healthcare organizations to expedite sourcing and contracting processes, and help increase savings by optimizing on-contract purchasing.
• Improve product data accuracy: By automatically cleansing product catalog data, Oracle Healthcare Marketplace helps healthcare organizations improve data consistency and accuracy across source systems. This enables healthcare organizations to save time and resources, and help reduce spending on costly non-catalog requests that result from incorrect product or pricing data. 
• Enhance the buying experience: By providing an expansive third-party medical, surgical, and device product catalog, Oracle Healthcare Marketplace helps healthcare organizations discover, source, and price desired items that are not listed within an organization’s existing item master, frequently purchased items, or contract portfolio. This enables healthcare organizations to increase productivity in sourcing and minimize order errors.

Oracle Healthcare Marketplace is the latest addition to Oracle Cloud SCM to help healthcare organizations optimize planning, automate processes, and enhance visibility across the supply chain. Oracle recently announced healthcare-focused mobile capabilities to help improve the efficiency and accuracy of inventory management processes.

Empower Healthcare Workers with Enhanced Employee Experiences

To support the success of healthcare workers, Oracle Cloud HCM helps healthcare organizations attract and retain skilled labor and develop talent to deliver the highest quality of patient care, while also offering employees new growth opportunities and helping business leaders manage complex staffing plans to support their teams. With Oracle Cloud HCM, healthcare organizations can:

• Attract and retain the best talent: Oracle Recruiting and Oracle Recruiting Booster help healthcare organizations efficiently source, screen, and hire in one complete recruiting solution. To help retain top talent, Oracle Touchpoints and Oracle Celebrate , part of the Oracle ME employee experience platform , help employees facilitate meaningful manager check-ins and peer recognition to reduce employee burnout and turnover, while Oracle Workforce Scheduling helps employees create flexible, personalized schedules that meet unique industry requirements.
• Develop talent based on patient care needs: Oracle Grow , also part of the Oracle ME employee experience platform, leverages AI to help leaders upskill staff to improve patient care and provide transparency into career growth opportunities with prescriptive role guides. Oracle Talent Management continuously validates licenses and certifications with third-party providers to keep key resources up to date with the right skills.
• Improve resource optimization: Oracle Workforce Scheduling helps healthcare organizations to always have the right team in place to deliver high-quality patient care by automatically generating staff schedules based on accreditations, eligibility, and availability to work various shifts. It also enables managers to better prepare for overflow and fill open shifts by leveraging financial, supply chain, and medical insights from across Oracle Cloud ERP, Oracle Cloud SCM, and Oracle Health Electronic Health Record .

Enable Better Patient Care with Comprehensive Financial and Operational Planning

To enhance insights, strengthen decision-making, and improve patient care, Oracle Fusion Cloud Enterprise Performance Management (EPM) , part of Oracle Cloud ERP, helps healthcare organizations model and plan across finance, HR, and supply chain functions. With Oracle Cloud EPM, healthcare organizations can:

• Improve forecast accuracy: Predictive planning capabilities in Oracle Planning help healthcare organizations refine and validate plans and forecasts to reduce risk. In addition, advanced predictions allow healthcare organizations to improve forecasting accuracy for patient volume, revenue, and other related expenses to effectively manage costs and resource capacity.
• Streamline financial reporting:   Oracle Financial Consolidation & Close helps healthcare organizations leverage AI and automation to speed the close process and improve governance. With generative AI-powered management reporting narratives and contextual collaboration across finance and operating functions, organizations can improve productivity and focus more on overall patient outcomes.

Oracle Fusion Applications Suite enables organizations to take advantage of the cloud and the latest advancements in AI to break down organizational silos, standardize processes, and manage finance, HR, supply chain, and customer experience data on a single integrated cloud platform. With quarterly update cycles, it gives customers access to continuous innovation as new features are added every 90 days.

To learn more about Oracle Fusion Applications, please visit:  oracle.com/applications

Contact Info

Shasta dentone.

• [email protected]
• +1.503.560.0756

About Oracle

Oracle offers integrated suites of applications plus secure, autonomous infrastructure in the Oracle Cloud. For more information about Oracle (NYSE: ORCL), please visit us at www.oracle.com .

Oracle, Java, MySQL and NetSuite are registered trademarks of Oracle Corporation. NetSuite was the first cloud company—ushering in the new era of cloud computing.