Concern Solving: Emancipating Problem Solving

This paper is about how problems get defined typically the sort of problems associated with organisational decision making. The author is concerned that by objectifying problem definition, scientific management make invisible whose problems they are and so silences solutions that may be attractive to others. This paper will argue that problem definition should focus on the person having the problem, not the objectified thing said to be the problem. Problems exist only in people’s heads; a problem needs a concerned person to be present. Separating the human concern (lens, perspective) and the thing being concerned about has been found useful as it allows for them to be critiqued separately. However, it has also has emancipatory implications as problems like ‘efficiency’ can be seen as a particular owner’s problem not automatically a problem for all. Evidence to support this conclusion is drawn from the multiple perspectives and the human systems literature. The author also draws on his experiences of working in a political office to demonstrate the usefulness of seeing problems primarily as someone’s concerns.