Question: During the problem-solving process, one must draw inferences from information. An inference is part of deductive reasoning. People must carefully think through the information and the alternatives. Faulty logic at this point may lead to poor-quality decisions. Primarily, people think illogically in three ways.
1. Overgeneralizing. This type of "crooked" thinking occurs when one believes that because A has a particular characteristic, every other A also has the same characteristic. This kind of thinking is exemplified when stereotypical statements are used to justify arguments and decisions.
2. Affirming the consequences. In this type of illogical thinking, one decides that if B is good and he or she is doing A, then A must not be good. For example, if a new method is heralded as the best way to perform a nursing procedure and the nurses on your unit are not using that technique, it is illogical to assume that the technique currently used in your unit is wrong or bad.
3. Arguing from analogy. This thinking applies a component that is present in two separate concepts and then states that because A is present in B, then A and B are alike in all respects. An example of this would be to argue that because intuition plays a part in clinical and managerial nursing, then any characteristic present in a good clinical nurse also should be present in a good nurse-manager. However, this is not necessarily true; a good nurse-manager does not necessarily possess all the same skills as a good nurse-clinician. Various tools have been designed to assist managers with the important task of analysis. Several of these tools are discussed in this chapter. In analyzing possible solutions, individuals may want to look at the following questions:
1. What factors can you influence? How can you make the positive factors more important and minimize the negative factors?
2. What are the fi nancial implications in each alternative? The political implications? Who else will be affected by the decision and what support is available?
3. What are the weighting factors?
4. What is the best solution?
5. What are the means of evaluation?
6. What are the consequences of each alternative?