Problem Solving in Organizations A Methodological Handbook for Business and Management Students

Introduction

In Chapter 2 we saw that student field projects in business and management can be based either on the empirical cycle, aimed at developing descriptive or explanatory knowledge, or on the problem-solving cycle, aimed at developing solutions for field problems. For the remainder of this handbook we discuss the methodology for the second type of project: the problem-solving project. It is a design-oriented and theory-informed methodology. There are, of course, other problem-solving strategies, and our methodology is not necessarily the best one for each and every business or organizational problem; it has a delineated application domain (see Section 3.5).

In this chapter we discuss first the foundations of this methodology and the types of field problems for which this methodology is appropriate. Then we discuss the nature of the problem-solving project, its basic set-up and the various modes in which student projects can be executed. We conclude by presenting the characteristics of professionally executed field problem-solving (FPS) projects, which are quite different from projects that aim to produce descriptive and explanatory knowledge.

Rational Problem Solving

This design-oriented and theory-informed methodology for business and organizational problem solving builds on the traditions of rational problem solving (Visscher and Visscher-Voerman, 2010). Systematic enquiry into problem solving, aimed at uncovering general principles, started with the work of Herbert Simon, Allen Newell and colleagues in the 1950s (see, for example, Newell and Simon, 1972). Their work strongly influenced research in cognitive science, artificial intelligence, management science and economics. A related stream of research developed on organizational decision-making, which had, in its formative years of the 1960s and 1970s, a predominantly rational orientation (see, for example, Simon, 1960). An especially representative example of this approach is the book by Kepner and Tregoe (1981). However, our design-oriented methodology differs from this rational problem-solving or decision-making approach in two significant aspects.

First, we see business problem solving not as a purely technical-economic activity. The issue is not to design a smart solution, but to realize performance improvement for a certain business system. This always involves organizational change, a change in organizational roles and routines, often with accompanying changes in perceptions and attitudes. With regard to organizational change, we follow Tichy (1983), who maintains that significant (in his words ‘strategic’) planned organizational change has to be managed simultaneously in the technical, political and cultural subsystems, using, respectively, technical, political and cultural interventions.