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The effect of structuring aids on the quality and quantity of solutions generated to ill-structured problems: A comparison of expert and novice performance
Abstract
This study investigated the effect of presenting a problem structuring aid, objectives, on the quantity and resolving power of solutions to ill-structured problems generated by experts and novices. Resolving power was defined as the extent to which a problem solution resolved conflicting facets of the problem. The expert subjects were 57 MBA students, the novice subjects were 72 undergraduate psychology students, and a third group of 25 undergraduate business students served as a comparison group. The subjects were instructed to generate solutions to an employee morale problem (Acme) and a sexual harassment problem (Carol); the order in which the problems were solved was counterbalanced. After reading a problem, subjects were provided with two conflicting objectives presented simultaneously, one at a time, or not at all. All subjects were instructed to generate as many solutions as they could that addressed the problem. Experts generated more solutions and more resolving solutions than novices to both problems. Presenting one objective at time generally resulted in the generation of more solutions. Experts generated more resolving solutions under the one objective at time condition than no objectives, but there was no difference between one objective and conflicting objectives conditions. The presentation of objectives had no effect on the resolving power of solutions generated by novices, nor on the resolving power of solutions generated by all subjects to the emotionally involving Carol problem.
Subject Area
Occupational psychology|Management
Recommended Citation
Butler, Adam Bruce, "The effect of structuring aids on the quality and quantity of solutions generated to ill-structured problems: A comparison of expert and novice performance" (1995). ETD collection for University of Nebraska-Lincoln. AAI9600728.
https://digitalcommons.unl.edu/dissertations/AAI9600728