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Abstract
Administrative professionals are expected to deal with increasingly complex and unexpected problems in a ‘VUCA’ (volatile, uncertain, complex, and ambiguous) world. The purpose of this qualitative case study is to explore the types of ill-defined, challenging, and dynamic problems that expert administrative professionals face in the workplace and examine how they solve those problems. In this study, a case is defined as a problem-solving episode experienced by administrative professionals. In order to deepen the understanding of the nature of expert administrative professionals’ problem-solving experiences, six expert administrative professionals with more than 10 years of experience supporting top executives of their organizations in South Korea, which are with more than 1,000 employees, were recruited. Two participants were from leading corporations, two were from foreign-affiliated corporations headquartered outside South Korea, and the last two were from public service institutions. Each participant had two (i.e., first- and second-round) two-hour, in-depth, semi-structured interviews adapted from the Critical Decision Method (CDM, Hoffman, et al., 1998). A total of 23 problem-solving episodes were collected as cases. An inductive data analysis approach was employed using the coding cycles and code mapping methods. The most dominant type of problems the APs face at their workplace was revealed to be the ‘strategic-performance problem type’ based on Jonassen’s (2000) ‘Typology of Problems.’ In addition, administrative professionals’ challenging situations tended to be accompanied by a mixture of problem types rather than occurring as only one problem type. The results of this study discovered 24 strategies, including 12 specific strategies in ill-structured problem solving and 12 strategies to enhance general task performance, that were used by experienced administrative professionals while solving challenging problems in the workplace. In addition, this study identified the gap between office administration education and required competencies in the workplace. Furthermore, this study expanded and advanced knowledge of problem-solving theories. In particular, this study revealed problem types that administrative professionals face in the workplace and how they make meaning out of their problem solving. This study has theoretical and practical implications of instructional design and a methodological recommendation for an alternative task analysis method in designing problem-based learning education.