Apply Critical Thinking

 In this project, you will address a case study that intentionally does not give you enough detail for you to quickly resolve the issue. This is meant to enable you to use the processes of critical thinking to reach conclusions. Given the gaps in information provided to you, you will identify what you know, what you don’t know, and what questions you need to ask as you start your investigation of the facts of the case. The process is designed to encourage clear thinking and to help you to identify potential cognitive traps that could derail well-reasoned conclusions. 

The final paper should be no more than 5 double-spaced pages, excluding the cover page and References page(s). Please organize your paper in accordance with your preparatory steps, using these subheadings:

1. Introduction
2. Explanation of the Issue
3. Analysis of the Information
4. Consideration of alternative viewpoints and conclusions
5. Conclusions and Recommendations

Here are some tips for success:

• Consider outside sources if they inform your case. However, stay on task.
• Use APA style for “in text” and reference citations. At this point, your citations should be error-free.

Consider these Best Practices for a paper:

• An effective introduction that grabs the reader’s attention and sets the tone and direction for the rest of the paper;
• Supporting paragraphs that move the reader from the general introduction to the more specific aspects of your analysis;
• Body paragraphs that provide support; and,
• A conclusion that leads to a natural close to what you have presented in your paper.

CloudComputing

You work as a network provider for Cloud Solutions, a mid-size cloud solution provider. Your

company is an AWS Channel Reseller partner that configures and resells AWS services to clients

around the world.

One afternoon, you received an email from Jessica Lopez, who works in the Customer Services

department. She received a call from one of her clients, Green Machine Marketing, about an

error message that they are getting. Jessica couldn’t figure out the issue and is asking you for

help to troubleshoot the problem. In researching the issue, you found out that a former co-

worker, Jim Black, who is no longer with the company, had incorrectly configured one of the

cloud services for Green Machine Marketing. This has caused the error message that they are

seeing. More troubling, the misconfiguration also caused the client to be over-billed by several

thousand dollars per month for the past year. They are being billed for services that they didn’t

request or need. At the same time, AWS cloud resources are being dedicated to them because

of this error and Cloud Solutions (your company) is paying AWS for these resources.

You mentioned this to your supervisor, Ben Smith, who is the manager for the network

engineering team. He said that we can’t tell anybody about this. If the client found out, we will

have to refund them the entire amount that they have been overcharged. In addition, the steps

to fix the incorrect configuration would require that the client’s services be shut down for at

least 30 minutes. A 30-minute downtime would trigger a penalty based on the current Service

Level Agreement with the client. You explained to your supervisor that without fixing the

configuration error, you won’t be able to address the issue that was brought up to you by the

help desk.

In the meantime, you received another email from Jessica Lopez in Customer Services asking

the status of the issue. She wrote that the client has called again as they continue to get error

message. The client wants to know when the issue will be resolved.

What should you do? Please provide a rationale for your answer.

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Critical Thinking Case Study

Lamin Jaiteh

University of Maryland Global Campus

DL 600: Decisive Thinking, Communicating and Leading

Professor Xiaobin Guan

January 25th, 2021

Welcome to the UMGC Effective Writing Center! My name is Mary Alice, and I am happy to work with you today. Before we begin, let’s review a few important guidelines and resources:

· You are welcome to come to the Effective Writing Center for help at any stage in the writing process, whether you are just getting started an assignment or want feedback on a rough draft.

· Resources to help you revise your writing assignment linked in the Summary Feedback Form, which you will receive along with your paper.

· Before reading this advice, please review the writing that you submitted.

At the EWC we are attentive readers who help you improve as a writer by explaining and modeling effective writing skills. For a more detailed discussion of our services, please

click this link and visit the Effective Writing Center web site

.

Although we will cover revisions and rules, your professor’s instructions always take precedence over any advice you receive from the EWC.  If you have any questions, refer to your assignment guidelines first and don’t hesitate to ask your professor to clarify any unanswered questions.

Thank you for submitting some of your assignment requirements.  Our goal is to ensure that your paper meets your professor’s assignment requirements as closely as possible, so this information is a big help!

Below is a table with an overview of your assignment, what you have completed, and what you need to fulfill the requirements.

A Case Study

APA

Assignment Requires	You Have	You Need
	A Case Study	A grammatically correct thesis/well used sources/smooth transitioning
	APA	Double check APA/a proper reference page
Grammar	Some errors	Avoid run ons/avoid comma splices/watch commas/ proofread carefully for small mistakes

Below you will find your paper, and I have included some comments. These comments and the Summary Feedback Form are your guide for revision. Good luck with your writing, and we hope you’ll work with us again soon!

Mary Alice Moore

Critical Thinking Case Study

Introduction

Decision making is essential to any of the work places because they will help determine the functionality of the employees and affect the consumers behavior. The consumers do prefer interacting with an organization that is upfront with their business and their mistakes which makes it essential to champion their work place. The flow of information should be flowing in both directions of the organization whereby the bottom gets information from the top and the top also gets information from the bottom. The concept helps in making sure that the different parties are on the same page and this brings a consensus within the workplace. Numerous organizations tend to collapse because of compartmentalizing which results in limits which changes the way that they do relate and changes their interactions which is a major problem. Poor communication between organizations and their consumers results in mistrust that might become a problem because they will not become loyal to the company and instead, they will leave the organization with negative reviews. The practicing of transparency is not only for the consumers benefits but also for the reputation and growth of the organization thus it is an important trait to help input into the workplace. Comment by Maryalice Moore: A comma is needed after page. Comment by Maryalice Moore: A thesis needs to be grammatically correct, See the Summary review form for more information.

Explanation of the issue

The consequences for the problem that the organization did cause for the client come at an expensive cost. The manager does not want to expose the problem to the consumer because it will then result in even further costs towards the company that if the matter remains quiet will not get back to the company. It is easier for the manager to try and come up with alternatives as a way of trying to execute the responsibilities of the position that he holds in the organization. The managers responsibilities include ensuring smooth operations, profitable interactions and creating a good interaction with its consumers which is beneficial to their functions. However, the intentions are good for the company, they are not good for their client and the ethical future of the organization. There is no way that the client’s problem can be resolved without the exposure of the problem and the mistakes of the company that did take a longer duration to capture. The company might end up losing the client because they will understand that there have been incurring extra bills that they should not have been facing which might change their look towards the organization. The fact that an employee from the company had left, implies that undoing the mistake and coming forward with it to the client might be a major crisis thus it is important to try and improve their functionality. Comment by Maryalice Moore: Did any of the information in these paragraphs come from research? If it did, it needs to be cited. Comment by Maryalice Moore: This is a comma splice. Comment by Maryalice Moore: No comma is needed. Comment by Maryalice Moore: This is a run on sentence.

Analysis of the Information

The organization is at a junction where they must make the decision of whether to choose the organization or the client. The mistake that is leading the client to bleed money and experience continuous error is not appropriate for their business since they might end up losing data. The managers understanding and taking the side of profitability for the organization is a measure of trying to put the organizations immediate needs in front of all the personal feelings that one might develop (Simon, 2019). The manager believing that there is need for the organization to avoid the additional costs that will emerge from the client demanding that they do need compensation from the money that they have been paying for a service that they did not need in the first place. It is important to make sure that they do increase their functions and profitability which is essential for their performance and interactions within the workplace. The customer services have the mandate to speak to the consumers and become as forthcoming as possible to the consumers will have to report the information when they do learn about it and thus it is a liability to also inform her of the actual situation. It is difficult to contemplate the right move because it an option of choosing the client over the company or vice versa which are both essential for the progress and growth of the company. The rising costs of the organization’s problems might be a major problem to the way that they do connect which is essential for their interactions thus it is important to come up with a principle that is essential for their interactions. Picking sides is not an option thus it is important to try and come up with the best option out of the two alternatives that will help make sure that the organization retains their practicality and still maintain a positive relationship with the clients. Comment by Maryalice Moore: You have quite a few run on sentences.

Consideration of alternative viewpoints and conclusions

The first alternative is to keep quiet about the entire cause of the problem and try to find a solution without bringing it up to make sure the client does not find about the organization being the problem. The alternative will help the organization avoid making extra payments that might be straining for the finances of the organization paying up for mistakes that a former employee did impose. It is also evident that the alternative will help make sure that the organization retains their reputation to the client because they do not understand that the company had an influence in the problems that they have been facing in the past year which might be bad because it has jeopardized operations in the organization. The alternative helps in putting the organization ahead of a single client and thus help boost the operations and businesses within the workplace which is beneficial to the way that they do function.

The second alternative is for you to convince the manager that coming forward to the client is the best alternative for the organization and making sure that the organization suffers the consequences to help make sure that they retain a good reputation and good consumer relationships. The alternative will help make sure that the client gets back proper services and earns compensation for the poor services that they have been experiencing and the services of the employee. It is important to understand that the alternative paints a good image of the organization owning up to their mistakes and might help build a positive relationship with the customers. However, the alternative will result in the organization incurring fines, penalties and compensations which are not appropriate.

Conclusions and Recommendations

As an organization that focuses on dealing with cloud computing, it is important to try and make sure that the consumers are satisfied and that they do become loyal consumers to the brand. The industry is competitive thus it is important to avoid making consumers upset because they might easily provide negative reviews that will damage the reputation of the organization to the market. Alternative two will be the best decision that involves coming out clean to the client and making sure that they do understand the implications of the mistake and how the contingencies will help make sure that the services are better and that it is beneficial to their functioning (Clabaugh, 2018). The organization must make sure that they must increase their functions which is important to understand that they must avoid mistakes that ruin the reputation of the company to the consumers. It will be important to try and make the client understand that as the new policies in the workplace, honesty and integrity take lead and thus they must believe that the organization was not aware of the mistakes (Trevino, 2016). The organization will opt to take charge of the mistake that they did make and ensure that the client’s problem is resolved fully and even added some profitability. The organization must make sure that the client stays and offer some free services that will make sure that their experience is good and that their trust in the organization remains intact. The organization should opt to take the penalty and make sure that they must enact policies that will help improve their interactions within the workplace. The employees must make sure that they do improve on their performances which is vital for the way that the company connects with their consumers; the consumers will respect the organization well when they do understand that it performs well within the integrity lines which is appropriate for a partner and not a company after making profits. Comment by Maryalice Moore: You can transition more smoothly between some of your paragraphs. A possible revision—Furthermore, as an organization that focuses on dealing with cloud computing, it is important to try and make sure that the consumers are satisfied and that they do become loyal consumers to the brand.

References Comment by Maryalice Moore: Use bold font

Clabaugh, G. (2018). Thinking Critically about “Critical Thinking”. Educational Horizons, 86(3), 129-133.

Simon, H. (2019). Making Management Decisions: The Role of Intuition and Emotion. The Academy of Management Executive (2018-2019), 1(1), 57-64. 

Trevino, L. (2016). Ethical Decision Making in Organizations: A Person-Situation Interactionist Model. The Academy of Management Review, 11(3), 601-617