Causes of Poor Problem-Solving

Causes of Poor Problem-Solving

Ineffective or poor problem-solving can be the result of any of the following factors.
These factors act like blinkers, constricting the perspective of person in the process of
problem-solving.

 Bounded Rationality:

 Propounded by Herbert Simon, the concept of bounded
rationality assumes that individuals make decisions by constructing simplified models
that extract the essential features from problems without capturing all their complexity.
Simon remarks that a majority of the people are only partly rational, and are in fact
emotional/irrational in the remaining part of their actions. He indicates two major causes
of bounded rationality:

a. Limitations of the human mind
b. The structure within which the mind operates

He states that boundedly rational people experience limits in formulating and solving
problems. As a result, when calculating expected utility, people do not make the best
choices.

For example, a person may choose to buy a particular brand of new cell-phone, based
on the information he gathered from advertisements and friends. Constrained by
bounded rationality, he will turn down even if he is offered a better bargain. Often,
bounded rationality could also be caused by “inverted intelligence” - clever people
who can easily argue that the information must be wrong.