THE USE OF A “BOARD OF DIRECTORS’ TO EVALUATE AND VALIDATE DECISIONS IN A COMPETITIVE GRADUATE MANAGEMENT SIMULATION COURSE Developments In Business Simulation & Experiential Exercises, Volume 19, 1992 221 THE USE OF A “BOARD OF DIRECTORS’ TO EVALUATE AND VALIDATE DECISIONS IN A COMPETITIVE GRADUATE MANAGEMENT SIMULATION COURSE Walter Rosenthal, Dowling College Wm. John Werner, Dowling College ABSTRACT In a real-world environment, a corporate Board of Directors has a legal and fiduciary responsibility to the corporation’s shareholders. It evaluates the decisions made by company executives, suggesting, guiding and stimulating them to adapt to the dynamics of their company’s strengths, weakness, opportunities and threats. This study reports on the apparently successful use of an external “Board of Directors’ to evaluate the quality of the students’ decision making strategies and processes as part of their learning process. INTRODUCTION A widely accepted and documented education principle, is that learning is facilitated when the learner receives immediate feedback. The final step in most simulation/gaming packages is a debriefing or feedback session. However, a recent extensive report observed that there was a “lack of well designed evaluative studies to establish learning validity’ in management simulations/games. EXTENDING THE EVALUATION PROCESS “Face validity,’ the process of soliciting the opinions of persons who are familiar with a real-world system, can powerfully assist the validation of a simulation and foster confidence in the participants’ decision making process. In a successful extension of this process, a “Board of Directors’ evaluates the decisions made by the students in a competitive management simulation course in the MBA Program at Dowling College, Oakdale, New York. The “Boards” consist of business executives who have volunteered their time to study the results of the student- team decisions and to evaluate their decision-making processes. Under precise role-playing conditions, the students justify to the Board the decisions for which they were individually responsible. STRATPLAN, developed by Hinton and Smith, is the simulation used in the Program. Based on its stated Goals and Objectives, each corporate team makes a total of 68 production, marketing and financial decisions each period or year. After four decision periods the students meet with their Boards to make formal presentations, and to justify the decisions they had made. The Board evaluates the decision making process of each student, comparing the individual results with the company’s previously stated goals. Detailed reports of the meeting are forwarded to the faculty for grading purposes. For continuity, the same Board personnel sits in review for both meetings. The success of the Boards’ involvement in the evaluation process is contingent upon four critical steps. 1. Assembling Balanced “Boards” from an Applicant Pool The faculty of the Dowling College MBA Program has been successful in developing a pool of alumni and business persons who live in the area and who are interested in returning something of value to the College. Each Board is balanced with at least one professional in finance, marketing, production and management. Another Board member serves to evaluate the students’ skills in presenting information, voice, dress, graphics and communication without addressing the results of their decision. 2. Training the Boards in Evaluation Procedures Before the semester begins, applicants for Board membership are invited to attend a screening session, where they are provided with an outline of responsibilities, a time schedule and a review of any changes or improvements in the STRATPLAN program or the evaluation process. Board members are trained to ask questions with one specific objective in mind: to judge the quality of the decision making process. Their questions must be challenging, without professional bias and based on an insight into the team’s stated Goals and Objectives. Board membership has become a social and “networking” activity, which has served their needs as well as providing assistance to the College. 3. Matching Teams and “Boards” Before the first Board meeting, the teams are given the Boards’ resumes, so that conflicts can be minimized. The faculty studiously avoids placing students before Board members who are in hierarchical positions within a company, or within industries as buyer and seller. 4. Debriefing “Boards” and Team Members Along with printouts from the decision periods, the Board receives an evaluation form for each team member. During the Board meeting, notes are made directly on the form and the Board members use those notes to question students on their decision making process. Within an hour after the Board meeting, the students and faculty are given copies of the Boards’ comments, including notes made by the presentation skills evaluator. This distribution is made quickly in order to provide a fresh look at the Board’s evaluation. CONCLUSIONS The use of well-trained, external and neutral “Board of Directors” can be a useful tool in evaluating decision making in a graduate Management simulation course. Students change their behavior from the first Board meeting to the second, they justify and prove to the Board that their decisions were not random. The structure of the Board must be carefully balanced with the students’ needs, their own real world experience, and the students’ learning base. The waiting list for Board membership is testimony to the success of the use of a Board of Directors to evaluate the students’ decision making process. In this MBA program, learning seems to have taken its rightful place in management simulation. Table of Contents Volume 19, 1992 The Pedagogical Utility of a Management Simulation Game in a Business Policy Course Modeling Economic Environments in Business Simulations: Some Comparisons and Recommendations Experiential Learning and TQM Principles: Teaching Behavioral Science in a Business School The Use of Poster Presentations as a Final Project in the Business Policy Course The Device Business: A Management Simulation for Strategy Formulation The Advantages of Experiential learning in the Auditing curriculum A Framework for the Identification of Moderated and Mediated Performance consequences of Pedagogical Alternatives Simulating Qualitative Research Relating to Values and Lifestyle Segmentation A New Market Demand Model for Business Simulators Interactive Optimization Using the Method of Relative Improvement Preferences: Methodology and Empirical Evaluation The Service Trainer Simulation Benefits of Internet Computer Networks for ABSEL Members How Should We Measure Experiential Learning? An Assessment of Simulation Usage in Management Accounting Courses The Influence of Myers-Briggs Type and Group Dynamics on Simulation Performance Effective Leadership Behavior in the Desert Storm Arena: An Application of the Vroom-Yetton-Jago Model Installing and Consolidating Work-Team Values: The Effects of a Multicultural Outdoors Experiential Program Key Determinants and Decision performance in a Business Simulations and Experiential Learning environment Multi-Cultural Experiential Learning: A Computer Simulation in Indonesia Attitudes Toward and Emotions Related to Women as Managers: A Replication and Beyond Scenario Approach to Simulating Consumer Expenditures: A Cross-Cultural Analysis Insights into Ethical Decision making Activities and Organizational Performance: A Management Simulation Analysis of College Students and Managers Evaluating a Business Simulation Program for Joint Venture Negotiation and Management Teaching Business Interviewing Strategies with an Experiential Approach Cooperative Learning Across the Business Curriculum Modeling Total Quality Elements into a Strategy-Oriented Simulation Teaching Business Decision making using a Simulator Extending the Educational Utility of a Simulated Competition within the Confines of an Established Undergraduate Marketing Curriculum Expert Systems Versus Traditional Methods for Teaching Accounting Issues Confidence Extremes Diminish Quality Performance in a Total Enterprise Simulation Can Ethics Be Taught? A Simulation Tests a Traditional Ethics Pedagogy Through The Looking Glass, Inc.: Organizational Climate Research as Experiential Pedagogy The use of Cluster Analysis for Business Game Performance Analysis Power and Ethnicity: An Experiential Learning Exercise (How to Sensitize Students to Diversity) Directed Development of Critical and Creative Thinking Skills for Case Analysis Implementing Total Quality Management in a Computerized Business Simulation Product Quality in Business Simulations Use of Simulation for Ethics Education in Management Satisfying the University's Customers through Total Quality Management Instruction: A Case Study Personality Characteristics and Group Performance in Total Enterprise Simulations Concepts of Interval Estimation and Quality Control Charts via Computer Simulated Sampling An Examination of the Effect of Team Cohesion, Player Attitude, and Performance Expectations on Simulation Performance Results The Effectiveness of Inventory Management and Production Scheduling Training in a Total Quality Management Environment Peer Group Indicators of the External Validity of Business Games: A five-year Longitudinal Study Political Strategies and Personal Actions Does Practice make Perfect? Observations on Simulation Trial The Use of A Non-Business Computer Simulation to Teach Marketing Management BankPro Commercial Bank Simulation The Production Game Pursuing Excellence: Work Strengths, Assets and relevant Values (An Exercise) Test of a Short Outward Bound Experience for College Students What is it that we want Student To Learn? Using Two TQM Philosophies when Playing Blackjack The Lagged Effects of Decision Variables on Financial Performance Measures Used in Two business Simulations The Development of an Experiential Exercise for Career Planning and Effective Job search Performance Measuring Quality in Management of Business Pedagogy Exploring Quality and Productivity Improvement: Using and Experiential Process Toward a Generalized Architecture for Intelligent Reactive Management Systems The Quality Game TQX: Using Expert Systems to Improve Training in Total Quality Management A Simulation of the Effect of the Medicaid Payment Lag on the Financial Position of Community Pharmacies The Use of a Board of Directors to Evaluate and Validate Decisions in a Competitive Graduate Management Simulation Course The Impact of Academic Dishonesty on Business Simulations and Experiential Learning Activities Picture Project: An Experience of Icebreaking and/or Decision-Making An Effective Role-playing Exercise for Teaching Requisite TQM Supervisory Attitudes/Behavior Computerized Management Simulations and Some Correlates of Students' Satisfaction The Timing and Stability of Reactions to Market Structure in a Single Player Simulation Environment A Graphics Application Extension for a Simulated Decision Support System Environment Aspects of a Group Project Utilizing Actual Business data and a Computerized Accounting System The Role of Universities' Extended Learning Department in Assisting Organizations Implement Total Quality Management A three-dimensional Learning Experience to Develop Total Quality Management Skills Estimating Quality Costs by Computer Simulation Applications and Examples of Quality Control Software Assessing Business Pedagogy A Demonstration of an Experiential Process for Exploring Quality and Productivity Improvement Processes An Action-Ethics Dilemma: A Demonstration Org Sim Jr.: A 2-3 Hour Version of the 2-Day Blanchard/Murrell Organization Simulation Building Buildings: An Experiential Exercise in Organizational Structure, Communication, Leadership and Group Dynamics Expert Systems for Organization Design: A Demonstration A Demonstration of Product Quality in a Business Simulation: Version 2 of CEO Two Revolutions, Total Quality Leadership, and the Baldy: The Story of Milliken Total Quality after the Award - The Xerox Story Building a Competitive Advantage through Customer Satisfaction and Reengineering Human Resource Planning: Managing the Only Renewable Resource for a Competitive Advantage Using Simulations to Teach International Issues: An analysis of the Multinational Management Game's Learning Environment Quality Function Deployment: A Tutorial Care and Nurturing of Teams Making a Good Thing Better: Adding TQM to Participative management Empowering Organizations to Redesign and Transform Themselves - Eastman Chemical Using Simulations in Field Management Development of an International Life Insurance Company Reinforcing the TQ Environment via Simulation Transforming a Business College into a Total Quality College