Affiliations: [a] Department of Management, Texas A & M University, College Station, TX 77843, U.S.A. | [b] Department of Organizational Behavior, Edwin L. Cox School of Business, Southern Methodist University, Dallas, TX 75275, U.S.A.
Abstract: The activities of managers range from using specific analytical techniques to employing broad intuitive judgments to dealing with sensitive human problems. All of these activities have one thing in common: they reflect managers' problem-solving styles. In all these activities, a manager's problem-solving style will be apparent to others. Sometimes, a manager will consciously be aware of his/her problem-solving style, and other times this recognition will be only intuitively recognized. This article introduces a new and systematic way of thinking about how managers make decisions. The ways managers gather and evaluate information determines their problem-solving styles. Unless managers are careful, their observations about others and decisions will tell much more about themselves than the people or problems on the job. The more in touch we are with our predispositions in problem-solving, the more capable we are of making effective decisions and of understanding others. Problem-solving is viewed in terms of the dual premise that consistent modes of thought develop through training and experience, and that these modes can be classified along two dimensions, information gathering and information evaluation. The authors conclude that there is no one best problem-solving style. A manager needs to recognize the strengths and limitations of his own preferred problem-solving style and the circumstances that may require a ‘tempering’ or change from this preferred style. Managers need to recognize that others may have different styles and, thus, different ways of coping with the ‘same’ problem.
Keywords: Problem solving styles, organizational design
