Planned problem solving is a dimension of cognitive ability. It describes a person's tendency to find good solutions by planning very carefully right away rather than by trying things out several times (Funke & Fritz 1995).
Everyone approaches problems differently. While one person carefully develops a plan, the other immediately tries out different approaches. For simple problems, you often find the desired solution by trying things out, but with increasing complexity, without a good plan, you quickly lose track of things. Here comes planned problem resolution into play.
A person's planned problem-solving can therefore be classified on a continuum between the two poles trial and error and planned approach. The value of each person can therefore be located at one point on the following scale:
Trial and error
People who are good at solving problems by trying things out several times prefer work environments in which an open error culture is more likely to be lived and mistakes are understood as an opportunity to learn.
Especially in activities with less complex tasks, a good solution can often be achieved faster through trial and error than through precise planning, such as for an artist or interior designer.
Planned approach
People who are good at solving problems through precise planning prefer working environments in which several steps must be thought through in advance in order to systematically complete complex tasks.
Especially in activities with complex, safety-related or cost-intensive tasks, precise planning is important because errors entail a high safety or cost risk, such as for an engineer or a physician.
Benefits in a professional context
As you can see, the best fit for a vacancy depends not only on the person's ability to solve problems in a planned way, but also on the tasks of the position.
If the job focuses on quickly testing different solutions, solving problems through trial and error is more helpful. If, on the other hand, it involves complex tasks where every mistake is expensive, the problem solution should follow a planned structure.
It becomes clear that planned problem solving is of different importance in different jobs. It is therefore all the more important to find the employee whose planned problem-solving style is ideal for a given job.
How do you record planned problem solving?
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Sources
- Betsch, T., & Haberstroh, S. (2005). Current Research on Routine Decision Making: Advances and Prospects. The routines of decision making, 359-376.
- Duncker, K. (1935). On the psychology of productive thinking. [The psychology of productive thought]. Springer.
- English, L.D. (1997). The development of fifth-grade children's problem-posing abilities. Educational studies in mathematics, 34 (3), 183-217.
- Fernandez-Duque, D., Baird, J.A., & Posner, M.I. (2000). Executive attention and metacognitive regulation. Consciousness and Cognition, 9 (2), 288-307.
- Funke, J., & Fritz, A. (1995). About planning, problem solving and action.
- Greiff, S., Fischer, A., Wüstenberg, S., Sonnleitner, P., Brunner, M., & Martin, R. (2013). A multitrait—multimethod study of assessment instruments for complex problem solving. Intelligence, 41 (5), 579-596.
- Mainert, J., Niepel, C., Murphy, K.R., & Greiff, S. (2019). The incremental contribution of complex problem-solving skills to the prediction of job level, job complexity, and salary. Journal of Business and Psychology, 34 (6), 825-845.
- Salovey, P., & Mayer, J.D. (1990). Emotional intelligence. Imagination, Cognition and Personality, 9 (3), 185-211.
- Tulving, E. (1972). Episodic and semantic memory. Organization of Memory, 1, 381-403.
- Zeidner, Moshe, Gerald Matthews, and Richard D. Roberts. “Emotional Intelligence in the Workplace: A Critical Review.” Applied Psychology 53.3 (2004): 371-399.
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