A GROUP EXPERIENCE AS AN INTEGRATED PART OF THE CORE MANAGEMENT COURSE Developments In Business Simulation & Experiential Learning, Volume 24, 1997 A GROUP EXPERIENCE AS AN INTEGRATED PART OF THE CORE MANAGEMENT COURSE David Efraty, University of Houston, Downtown William E. Stratton, Idaho State University ABSTRACT This paper describes an attempt to supplement the teaching of concepts in the core management course with an experiential group experience engaging students actively in the learning process to generate the rules and principles to guide their behavior in new group situations. Each of the eight sequential steps that constitute the group experience is described and its underlying rationale is discussed. INTRODUCTION AND BACKGROUND Studies such as the Porter-McKibbin Report, which called for increased attention to the development of interpersonal and leadership skills among business students (Porter & McKibbin, 1988), and the increasing use in organizations of self-managed teams, cross-functional task forces, groups organized around production processes, and other group-based settings have led to greater interest in developing student skills in managing groups. However, attention to groups in the curriculum is still insufficient—courses dedicated solely to group dynamics are neither common in undergraduate business programs nor specifically required for undergraduate accreditation. The core course in organizational behavior is often based on one of a fairly large number of available texts. Currently, we happen to be using Managing Organizational Behavior by Schermerhorn, Hunt, and Osborn (1994), a representative text covering a range of important topics generally included in most management core courses. However, only 14% of the textbook (three chapters out of twenty-one) is focused on the topic of groups. Due to this limited treatment of the important topic of groups, we feel it is beneficial to supplement textbook concepts with an experiential group assignment. This activity requires student membership in an ongoing group with problems to be solved and assignments to be completed so that the student is given an opportunity to take an active part in the learning process and generate from this experience the rules and principles that will guide behavior in new group situations. Experiential involvement in-groups increases the possibility of developing the skills needed to actually manage them in addition to the cognitive knowledge to understand their behavior. Michael Polanyi (1966) suggests that skills are responsive in nature and a product of the subconscious. What this means is that “skill cannot be taught in [an] ‘external’ fashion.... it is knowledge that one learns and then applies.... Skills can be learned only from experience,” and “experiences, not the instructor, are the true teachers.” (McKnight, 1995, pp. 92,204). Thus, participation in an experiential group activity is necessary to foster interpersonal skill development in students. The experiential group assignment, in which students must learn to function in a group and also learn how to make a group productive, aspires to produce in students an understanding of the two characteristics of the learning organization described by Senge (1990), adaptiveness and generatively. In his terms, successful organizations are learning organizations—they are both adaptive (i.e., coping reactively with their environments) and generative (i.e., able to be creative). The use of a group experience as part of a course is congruent also with the model of experiential learning presented in Kolb, Rubin, and McIntyre (1974). In accordance with this model, experiential learning is conceived as a four-stage cycle: (1) concrete experience is followed by (2) reflection, which leads to (3) theory building involving the formation of abstract concepts and generalizations, which lead to (4) hypotheses to be tested in future actions, which in turn lead to new experiences to be reflected upon, and so the cycle continues. This paper describes a semester-long group experience integrated into the core course in management. The primary aim is to supplement the traditional teaching process of textbook and lectures with a firsthand, continuing group 222 Developments In Business Simulation & Experiential Learning, Volume 24, 1997 experience in class and in so doing enrich the learning process and enhance learning. THE INTEGRATED GROUP EXPERIENCE To enrich the basic course in management with a group dynamics perspective without sacrificing other important topic areas, the following sequence of eight steps is undertaken in our course. Step 1: Student Orientation to the Course Orienting students to the special nature of the course is accomplished in the very first class session by focusing on continuous learning as a core issue for organizational survival and adaptation in dynamic environments. Step 2: Group Formation To foster a sense/climate of trust, the assignment of students to groups is done publicly utilizing a random procedure that is visible to the students. Step 3: Empowering the Group Over Members In cases where extrinsic motivation becomes necessary to elicit or maintain performance of group members, groups may be empowered to differentiate among the contributions of their members. The groups can award individual grades to their members based upon the collective judgment of the members as to each individual’s contribution to the completion of assignments. Step 4: Facilitating the Group Formation Stage To help the class groups get off to a good start, the Group Formation Exercise (Schermerhorn, Hunt, and Osborn, 1994) is used at the very beginning of the semester. Step 5: Regular Group Class Activities To ensure time for group development, approximately 30 minutes of each class session are dedicated to analyzing short cases or to exercises. Step 6: Group Case Analyses Written analyses of two cases are required from each group. Step 7: Analysis of the Group Experience Each group must create a written analysis of its experience as a group. Step 8: Group Presentations To provide a sense of closure to the group experience, all groups are required to share a presentation of their group experience with the entire class. CONCLUSION In general, students leave the course with a sense of closure. At the end of the course 63% of the 67 students enrolled indicated they learned “much” or “very much” and another 31% indicated "some" learning. A total of 79% of those enrolled indicated they found the course “satisfying” or “very satisfying." These results indicate that the group activity as described in this paper is found by most students to be a satisfying learning experience. REFERENCES Kolb, David A., Rubin, Irwin M., and McIntyre, James M., (eds.), 1974, “On Management and the Learning Process,” Organizational Psychology. A Book of Readings 2nd Edition, Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hail, Inc., pp.27-42. Kolb, David A., Rubin, Irwin M., and McIntyre, James M., 1984, Organizational Psychology: Readings On Human Behavior In Organizations, 4th Edition, Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall, Inc. McKnight, Melvin R., 1995, “The Nature of People Skills,” Journal of Management Education Vol.17, No.2 (May 1995), pp. 190-204 Polanyi, Michael, 1966, The Tacit Dimension, New York: Doubleday. Porter, Lyman W., and McKibbin, Lawrence E., 1988, Management Education and Development: Drift or Thrust Into the 21st Century? Englewood, CO: McGraw-Hill. Schermerhorn, Jr. J.R., Hunt, J.G., and Osborn, R.N., 1994, Managing Organizational Behavior, Fifth Edition, New York: John Wiley & Sons. Schermerhorn, Jr. J.R., Hunt, J.G., and Osborn, R.N., 1994, Instructor‘s Resource Guide to Accompany Managing organizational Behavior, Fifth Edition, New York: John Wiley & Sons. Senge, Peter M., “The Leader’s New Work: Building Learning Organizations,” Sloan Management Review, Fall 1990, as reprinted in Jick, Todd D., 1993, Managing Change: Cases and Concepts, Burr Ridge, IL: Richard D. Irwin, Inc., pp. 440-463. 223 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