A lot of managers don’t want to hear about a problem at work unless the employee who points it out also suggests a fix. 

But a new Tippie College of Business study suggests the “don’t give me problems, give me solutions” mantra is shortsighted. If the building is on fire, the study says, should you not bring it to management’s attention because you don’t have a fire extinguisher?

“Pointing out problems creates an urgency to solve the problem,” said Daniel Newton, associate professor of management and entrepreneurship. “A lot of the time, when people see problems, they don’t have a solution. But if they don’t point the problem out, it won’t get solved.” 

Unfortunately, he said that in too many organizations that demand solutions, employees learn to stay quiet so they’re not branded as troublemakers. As a result, problems aren’t identified and don’t get resolved. 

Newton’s new study shows that effective management teams keep a collective open mind when it comes to hearing employee concerns. His research team studied a passenger rail organization and found that managers acted with a greater sense of urgency in response to employees who pointed out problems as to those who suggested a new and better way to do something.

Newton said good management understands that ignoring problems typically leads to more problems and will take action to put out the fire, even if it means putting more forward-thinking ideas on the backburner. He says that a culture of organizational openness and transparency is more apt to lead to better problem solving than expecting workers to fix problems themselves. 

He points to the 1986 explosion that destroyed the Space Shuttle Challenger as an example. Although some engineers worried that cold weather the night before launch might compromise safety, most said nothing because NASA had a go-go culture at the time that minimized problems. Unfortunately, employee concerns were valid, and the ensuing explosion killed all seven astronauts and traumatized a generation. 

“Good managers want to know about problems because they want things to improve,” he said. And for workers, “there’s value in not staying in your lane.”

Newton’s study, “Putting out Burning Fires: Investigating the Urgency Triggered by Prohibitive Voice,” was published in the Journal of Management.

Media contact: Tom Snee, 319-384-0010 (o); 319541-8434 (c); tom-snee@uiowa.edu