Understanding Participant Engagement in Problem Structuring Interventions with Self-Determination Theory

The importance of understanding how Soft OR methods work is increasingly being recognised. However, gaining insight into how participant engagement develops at the micro-level of a problem structuring intervention is an ongoing challenge. This exploratory study addresses the question: How do intrinsically motivating experiences of participants unfold in problem structuring interventions? A sensitising device for the study of motivational affordances in problem structuring
interventions is proposed, grounded in self-determination theory, interaction aesthetics and the generic constitutive definition of problem structuring methods. Applying this lens to empirical episodes from a problem structuring intervention, eudaimonic and hedonic experiences of participants are made visible. In this way, the approach proposed in this paper contributes to an enriched understanding of how Soft OR methods work and enhances our conceptual repertoire for reflection on practice.