CRITICAL AND CREATIVE THINKING

The intermediate results of this study supplement the rather narrow research in the field, which has sought, based on theoretical and practical approaches, to contribute to shedding light on the mechanisms of modern practices in managers’ creative thinking and the related principles and values. As we are nowadays heading towards a liberal knowledge-based economy in which the role and significance of scientific and technological knowledge for economic activity has changed radically, there are increasingly more opinions supporting the need to redefine theoretically the concept of creative thinking and place it within a more complex system than the traditional one. Creative thinking is essentially a complex mental activity that results in a particular product, it is the mental capacity of the human individual to achieve new things, in different forms: theoretical, scientific, technical, social, etc., to reveal unknown facts about reality, to develop original approaches and solutions to solve problems and to express them in unique personal forms. The research conducted as part of the present study has identified a current need for creative practices, highlighting the personal capacity to identify and manage effectively one’s own skills, abilities, and qualities in relation to one’s personal goals (career, family, education, etc.). The approach ranges from the conceptual to the methodological dimensions to explore the experimental field, which includes: information, comparative analyses, inductive and deductive testing of the ideas and interpretations supported by real situations. This study of great topicality and originality can be considered a concrete support for researchers, academics and managers in what is an interesting field of economy.