Introduction
Critical Thinking is a skill that allows readers to evaluate a situation and judge what is right or wrong through the use of logic and reasoning, beyond their own prejudices. According to Ennis (2001): ”Critical thinking is "reasonably and reflectively deciding what to believe or do. Critical thinking means making reasoned judgments. Basically, it is using criteria to judge the quality of something, from cooking to a conclusion of a research paper. In essence, critical thinking is a disciplined manner of thought that a person uses to assess the validity of something: a statement, news story, argument, research”. Critical Thinking plays a an important role in the case study analysis by giving us a foundation for a deeper learning and integration of the reading. Without thinking critically about what we are studying , we wouldn't be able to learn in a meaningful way or we wouldn't be able to learn deeply enough to have our thinking corrected and enhanced. The purpose of this case study analysis paper is to provide the case study background, identify key problems in the study, provide alternatives, propose solutions and offer a recommendation in the case of Carl Robins by utilizing the critical thinking skills.
Background
The case study presented in front of us is a case study of Carl Robins, a new campus recruiter for ABC, Inc., who in his first recruitment effort successfully hired 15 new trainees to work for Monica Carrolls, the Operations Supervisor (University of Phoenix, 2015). Carl Robins successfully hired 15 new trainees and scheduled new hire orientation date for June 15 with an intention and hope that the new hires would be readily eased into their job roles in the following month, month of July. Although, he’s never hired such a large group of new employees, Carl felt good about his recent hiring accomplishment and assumed that just as the hiring process was completed smoothly, the orientation and easing the new trainees into their job roles will be as smooth. However, upon Supervisor Maria's call to Carl to check in on the upcoming training calendar for new trainees, after mentioning employee hiring files, orientation manuals, room set-up and availability, Carl has realized that he had not in fact checked all these mentioned details. This is when Carl figured that he may possibly encounter a few problems that may need to be overcome prior to the June orientation. The phone call placed by Maria was a month in advance from the orientation date, and came in right on time, Carl thought and made a plan to check into all the steps of the new trainee hiring process outlined to him by Supervisor Maria: new trainees files, training manuals and training room availability. Carl was confident that no matter what issue he would face, he still had enough time to take care of it as Maria’s call came in a month in advance from the orientation set in June, and better yet almost two months in advance when he planned to let the new trainees settle into their job roles, which was planned for July after the June orientation.
Key Problems Carl has identified a few key problems with his new trainees’ files that he needed to address and correct prior to the June orientation. After he had reviewed the new employee hiring files he has identified that a few of the new trainees have not completed their hiring applications, he identified some of the new trainees did not have transcripts on file, and even more concerning was the issue that none of the 15 new trainees have taken the mandatory drug screen test. At this point Carl also reviewed the new hire orientation room and material distributed to the new trainees such as the orientation manuals, he then concluded that he had in his possession only three manual and some of them were incomplete. The training room also was booked throughout June by Joe, from technology services, who reserved the room for the entire month of June for computer training seminars for the new database software implementation. It is at this moment of revelation, that Carl completely panicked as he had only one month to go to take care of new trainee file issues, the orientation manuals and also to have an available orientation room.
Alternatives
A few possible alternatives that Carl has at this point of time after finding out what issues he has encountered with the incomplete new trainees files, lack of trainees completing their drug screening tests, lack of the orientation manuals or incomplete training manuals, and the orientation room unavailability in June are discussed as follows. One of the first alternatives that Carl can consider is to move the dates of the orientation from June to July as the month of June is already booked by Joe, the computer technician. This alternative seems like the easiest solution because, if Carl moved the orientation to July, Carl would have enough time to complete the new trainees files, to print enough training manuals, and to ensure that the training room is readily available for the orientation in July. However, this alternative would mean that the new trainees would not be eligible to start in their job roles in July under Maria’s supervision but rather in August and this would more than likely not make Supervisor Maria happy as she is looking forward to the new hired help to increase the work productivity. A second alternative that Carl has is to reach all the 15 trainees, have them come in and finish out the applications, transcripts and also present them with the drug screening cards to complete in the timely manner by June 15th. However, that alternative would mean that aside from the new trainees completing their part of application process, transcripts and drug screening tests, Carl would have to be on the same page with Joe, the computer technician and work our a solution with him to move the computer training seminar to another building which has a conference room readily available. A third alternative for Carl and the problems he is encountered is to discuss the above option with Supervisor Maria and see what her input is on the possible alternatives or if she has one.
Proposed Solution(s)
Out of all the possible alternatives serving as solutions that will enable Carl to overcome the issues he has faced with this hiring recruitment decision: incomplete files, drug test incompletion, training manuals and training room unavailability, the best alternative that serves as solution in this study is to as a first step of the alternative reach all the 15 trainees by phone and have each trainee come in to the office, finish their applications and paperwork, complete drug screen tests and email Carl the proof of test completion. This alternative has two more steps to it as Carl will have to print out 15 new training manuals because as stated in the beginning of the paper, three available manuals had missing pages therefore Carl third step of this alternative is to have a sit down with Joe, the computer technician and present to him his situation with the training room schedule and ask if Joe can move his computer seminar to the conference room that already has computers set up for conference attendees which of course would for his seminar perfectly due to the computer availability in the conference room.
Recommendation(s)
A recommendation in a case study like this would be that prior to the hiring decision, Carl should have checked all the details of the hiring process from inspecting the applicants files and making sure the applications and transcripts are all complete for each new trainee, as well as that the drug screen tests are completed prior to the scheduled orientation, and that the training room and training materials are both available. Another recommendation is that Carl should have discussed the hiring decision with Supervisor Maria as she does have experience in this filed, after all she is the one that alerted Carl in her phone call to him to check on the applicant files, room availability, training manuals etc.
Conclusion
In conclusion, although Carl has felt really good about his successful hiring recruitment decision, in the beginning of the hiring process, the hiring decision is just one step among many that will lead to a successful hiring journey where the end step is placing the trainees into their job roles, finding out what other steps needed to be reviewed and completed after the initial hiring step had placed doubts in Carl that he will be successful in his journey. But, after completing critical thinking and reviewing possible alternatives and solutions to his problems, selecting an alternative that had Carl call each trainee come back, finish out their applications, complete transcripts and complete drug test, along with Human Resource print out 15 new training manuals and having a collegiate sit down with Joe, computer technician and have him move his seminar to conference room, enabled Carl to over come his obstacles and complete the June orientation which then enabled all the trainees to move into their job roles with Supervisor Maria in July. However, this experience has been a good and though lesson for Carl that next time he makes a hiring decision, he need to foremost critically think over each one of the hiring steps prior to making a hiring decision.

References
Ennis, R. (2001). Critical Thinking Skills in Education and Life. Retrieved from http://www.asa3.org/ASA/education/think/critical.htm
University of Phoenix. (2015). Case Study on Carl Robins. Retrieved from University of Phoenix, COMM215 website.