Paper Title
Non-Routine Problem Solving Performance by Country Origin

Abstract
Complexity surrounding a task can hide information being critical to efficiently solve the problem [1]. Non-routine tasks are considered to be of increasing importance in modern workplaces and can be considered complex problems [2]. Non-routine problem solving (NPS) refers to overcoming routine in order to update a wrong mental model and efficiently solve a complex problem, which has shown to be a mental challenge [3], [4]. Only 19 out of 199 participants solving the non-routine task “Flag Run” during an online experiment showed high NPS performance [4]. 28 out of 262 US-American participants showed high NPS performance during a second experiment [3]. In order to research possible correlations between cultural “uncertainty avoidance” [5] and NPS performance, country origin was further diversified. 17 out of 290 Indian participants, and 12 out of 51 German participants were NPS performers. Sex and age were not significant for NPS performance in all country groups. Several highly significant differences between country-origin (India, US-America, Germany) and NPS performance were found. Keywords – Complex Problem Solving, Mental Model, Overcoming Routine, Non-Routine Task