COACHING BUSINESS GAME TEAMS USING A DECISON VARIABLE OPTIMIZER Developments In Business Simulation & Experiential Learning, Volume 24, 1997 COACHING BUSINESS GAME TEAMS USING A DECISION VARIABLE OPTIMIZER Joseph N. Roge’, Northeastern State University Joseph Wolfe. University of Tulsa Demonstration Rationale and Method The classroom role of those administering computer-based games for management education and development purposes is one that typically asks them to proactively guide the learning process using the learning cues and structure created by simulation’s learning environment. This role is an important one. Instructors can influence business game teams (Certo. 1976; Dill. Hoffman, Leavitt & O’Mara, 196 1; Keys, 1977; McKenney, 1967) but the successful conduct of their role requires a number of unique instructor skills and personal attributes. Additionally, the exact nature of the content of the player/administrator interaction is problematical. Starbuck and Kobrow (1966) were surprised to find to find that advised teams of graduate students playing the UCLA Executive Decision Game (Version 3) did not outperform unadvised teams in an economic sense. More importantly, they discovered unadvised teams were more friendly towards each other and made their decisions more-often outside regular meeting times. They also placed more emphasis on short- term results and the advisors were unsuccessful at making the simulation experience a laboratory for the use of sophisticated decision models, which was the faculty’s emphasis. The advisors instead found their counseling sessions revealed large gaps in the understanding of basic concepts and that these gaps had to be filled during their advising sessions. It was also discovered that players would only accept advice and coaching felt to be relevant within the gaming situation created by the simulation. Rollier’s (1992) experience with about 400 IBM executives playing the Strategic Management Game (Aronson, Gekoski & Spero, 1987) also provided insight into the nature of the instructor’s role. He concluded the role should be that of facilitation. To exercise this role the instructor had to have both a deep knowledge of the simulation itself and a breadth of knowledge regarding the various multi-functional concepts being modeled. Moreover Rollier found the instructor had to employ judgment with respect to the amount., rate, and level of sophistication of information supplied players over the simulation’s duration. This need for pacing knowledge and support was also found by DeBattista (1986). Higher learning levels were attained by those receiving weekly structured feedback on assignments related to The IMAGINIT Management Game (Bardon, 1978) as opposed to those playing the same game without structured feedback. Given these observations regarding the need for a game administrator to evince a positive, supportive and economically-relevant role, we would like to demonstrate how a specially- designed program that optimizes decisions a company should have made in a business game can be used as a facilitator’s coaching aid. A decision variable optimizer (Roge’, 1996, 1996) has been designed and programmed for Henshaw and Jackson’s The Executive Game (1990) that produces period-by-period locally optimal decisions for a particular period’s run. Because each period’s “best” decision set is know by the facilitator, given all other company decisions and results associated with that period’s run, coaching and counseling sessions can be conducted in a more meaningful fashion. During such counseling sessions players can be (1) shown that an optimal decision set exists thereby pointing the way to greater rationality while simultaneously supporting the game’s internal and external face validity, (2) guided as to how to create forecasting techniques and decision rules that will he)p them to construct the probable nature of their firm’s next-period decision-making environment, and (3) provide an alternative to profits as a team evaluation criterion should the instructor so choose (Teach, 1990). Time Schedule 209 Developments In Business Simulation & Experiential Learning, Volume 24, 1997 I. Greeting and introductions (5 minutes) 2. Literature review on facilitation and facilitation strategies (5 minutes) 3. Description of The Executive Game Decision Variable Optimizer (10 minutes) a. How created b. How it works c. Model validation d. Output created 4. Coaching a team with the Decision Variable Optimizer (15 minutes) a. Questions typically asked; Answers that can be provided b. Forecasting and decision-making tools created and suggested 5. Discussion and question and answer period (10 minutes) References Aronson M. B., Gekoski, J. H. and L. L. Spero (1987). The Strategic Management Game. Philadelphia: Strategic Management Group, Inc. Barton, R. F. (1978) The IMAGINIT Management Game. Lubbock TX: Active Learning. Certo, S. C. (1976) The Experiential Exercise Situation: A Comment on Instructional Role and Pedagogy Evaluation Academy of Management Review. 1(3): 113-116. DeBattista, R. A. (1986) Using a Business Simulation in the Principles of Management Course - Learning Outcomes and Perceptions In A. C. Burns and L. Kelley (Eds.), Developments In Business Simulation & Experiential Exercises: 28-32. Stillwater, OK: Oklahoma State University Dill, W. R. W. Hoffman H. J. Leavitt & T O’Mara (1961) Experiences with a Complex Management Game. California Management Review. 3(3): 38-5 1. Henshaw, R. C. and J. R. Jackson 1990) The Executive Game. Homewood, IL: Irwin. Keys J. B. (1977). The Management of Learning Grid for Management Development Academy of Management Review. 2 (2): 289-297. McKenney, J. L. (1967) Simulation Gaming for Management Development Boston: Division of Business, Harvard University Roger, J. (1995). A Simulation Based Analysis of the Value of information in the Herbiniak and Joyce Typology of Adaptation Relative to Porter’s Generic Strategies In J. D. Overby and A. L. Patz (eds.), Developments In Business Simulation & Experiential Exercises: 49-55. Madison, Wisconsin: Omnipress. Roge’, J. (1996). An Analysis of Deliberate and Emergent Strategies Relative to Porter’s Generic Differentiator and Cost Leader: A Bias and Variance Modeling Approach. In A. L. Patz and J. K. Butler, Jr. (eds.), Developments In Business Simulation & Experiential Exercises: 68-73. Madison, Wisconsin: Omnipress. Rollier, B. (1992) Observations of a Corporate Facilitator Simulation & Gaming 23 (4) 442-456. Starbuck, W. H. and E. Kobrow 1966) The Effects of Advisors on Business Game Teams. The American Behavioral Scientist 10 (II): 28-30. Teach R. D. (1990). Profits: The False Prophet in Business Gaming. Simulation & Gaming 21 (1): 12-26. 210 Table of Contents Volume 24, 1997 Incorporating Computer Telephony into the MIS Course A Learner Oriented Infrastructure for videoconferencing Based Distance Education Courses The Identification of Temporally Related Structural Elements of the Experiential Component of Electronic Spreadsheet Tasks Does Involvement Influence Learning from Simulation Participation? Some Relationships with Helpfulness and Performance Outcomes Musings on Business Garne Performance Evaluation Performance on a TE Simulation: What does it represent? The Business Policy Game: An International Simulation - An Assessment Tool Students in Free Enterprise as Experiential Learning The Role of Computer Models in Wargames: A Practitioner's view Using Focus Groups as a Tool to Research Learning: A Demonstration and a Discussion Using Medical Simulations to Teach Multi-Cultural Diversity Using the World Game to Internationalize International Exchange Game Community Services Needs Assessment: An Innovative Approach Introducing Students to Potential Total Quality Management Ethical Dilemmas Privacy in the Workplace: A Situational Analysis Antecedents of Learning in Simulations Demonstrating the Learning Effectiveness of Simulation: Where we are and Where we need to go The Use of Computer Simulations as a Pedagogical Aid in Teaching Management Information Systems Evaluating Simulation Learning in a Distant Learning Instructional Model Financial Engineering of Global Investments The Labor History Game: Playing with the Past Perks Participation Assessing Negotiator's Proficiency with a Negotiation role-play The Art of Negotiating Enhancing Learning and Employee Development through the Assessment of Learning Pedagogy Preferences across selected Dimensions of Culture: A Preliminary Investigation Cooperative Learning: What are we Learning? Effective Use of Mastery Based Experiential learning in a Project Course to improve skills in system analysis and Design Simulations and Learning: Can we prove a relationship? (Seminar) Predicting and Reviewing NYSE Stock Prices by use of Basic Statistical Analysis and Logic Toy Car Depreciation Exercise ABSEL as Home Community: An Interactive Exploration Service Learning: Linking Academic Study to Community Development and Business Enhancement Ability of Efficient Evaluation of Knowledge-Based Management Strategies Corporate Ethics Training Programs Modeling Attributes in Demand Functions of Computerized Business Simulations: An Extension of Teach's Gravity Flow Algorithm Expert Systems Combined with Neutral Networks: Tools to Benefit the Marketing Researcher Computer Game Design: New Directions for Intercultural Simulation Game Designers Consistency in Simulation Performance over Time and Across Simulation Games The Impact of an Artificial Market Leader on Simulation Competitor's Strategies Business Plans, Case Studies, and Total Enterprise Simulations: A Natural Co-existence An Exploration into the Non-Use of Business Simulations The Market Game: Interactive Learning Through Market Simulation Plotting Brand Trajectories with the COMPLETE PPM package: A Market Segmentation Analysis and Positioning Tool Me and Mine Inc: An Exercise in Management Theory Learning to Differentiate Leadership from Managerial Position Business Ethics Survey: A Perspective from the Retail Industry Experiential Learning in Demand Analysis for an Agricultural Commodity Marketing on the Internet: A Pedagogical Exercise College Students Need Simple Computer Simulations, Especially for International Business Courses An Analysis of Student Attitudes, Performance, and Strategies in a Simulation Competition Based on a Controlled Product-Market-Entry Game Structure The Crystal Enterprise: Application of a Non-Computerized Simulation Model in a Process of Organizational Change Threshold: A Windows-Based Behaviorally Oriented Total Enterprise Simulation Coaching Business Game Teams Using a Decision Variable Optimizer Rock and Roll is here to Stay: Enhancing Experiential Pedagogy with Musical Exercises An Example of Business Process Analysis Simulation for Customer Software Support The Use of Business Gaming in Hong Kong Academic Institutions Using the Integrative International Simulation INTOPIA Mark 2000 in a Concentrated MBA Curriculum A Group Experience as an Integrated Part of the Core Management Course Empowered Learning in the Classroom The Inter-Group Interaction: An Innovative Approach to Cooperative Learning Courses that Utilize Student Team: An Approach to enhancing their Effectiveness Thoughts about the Measurement of Learning: The Case for Guided Learning and Associated Measurement Issues Measuring Student Learning Using Business Simulations: A Theory Based Perspective On the Use of PC Fingame in an Undergraduate Finance Course How Managers get Things Done: A Virtual Soundbite Internet Experiential learning in the Principals of Marketing Classroom: A Pedagogical Approach Current Student Perceptions Relative to Business Simulations Beyond Capitalism: Designing Business Policy and Social Justice The Use of Boards of Directors to Evaluate Reports and Presentations in an Undergraduate Business Policy Course Beacon Lumber: An Experiential Introduction to Financial Accounting The Application of Organizational Motivation Principles: The Experiential Business Simulation Motus Manufacturing Avoiding a Bogey: Grading Case Discussions Scientifically Communicating Consumer Behavior II: A Modified Exercise Using Personal Consumption Journals in Condensed Courses Designing Instruments for Assessing the Effectiveness of Simulations, (Seminar) 360º Performance Feedback: Appraisal vs. Assessment The Cafeteria Approach to Managing an Academic Career: Remaining Non-Perishable while Doing Your Own Thing An Experiential Exercise Related to Person-Organization Fit and it's Consequences For Today's Dynamic and Changing World, Business Simulations need to be expanded to encompass Much Greater Complexity: A Demonstration The Incident Process: A Case in Reverse Contextually-Anchored Business Simulations The Energy Factor: Building Motivation in the Simulation Gaming Environment The Design of an Internet Game