CONSUMER ALIENATION AND PERCEIVED RELEVANCE OFCONSUMER ALIENATION AND PERCEIVED RELEVANCE OF THE BUSINESS SIMULATION THE BUSINESS SIMULATION Developments in Business Simulation & Experiential Exercises, Volume 8, 1981 160 CONSUMER ALIENATION AND PERCEIVED RELEVANCE OF THE BUSINESS SIMULATION Ronald L. Decker, University of Wisconsin - Eau Claire Noel M. Lavenka, University of Wisconsin - Eau Claire ABSTRACT Business policy students were asked to evaluate the simulation exercise in terms of its appropriateness as an instructional’ method following the format of Chisholm, Krishnakumar, and Clay. The same students were also given an attention survey to measure their individual degree of consumer alienation. The objective was to determine whether there was a relationship between satisfaction with the simulation, role- playing exercise and the individual's measured amount of consumer alienation. INTRODUCTION Researchers and other writers have frequently evaluated business simulations as teaching instruments. Chisholm, Krishnakumar, and Clay1 have presented a theoretical framework for evaluating the effectiveness of computer simulations in the classroom. Chisholm, et al. suggest that effectiveness in this context is a function of the simulations characteristics, environmental characteristics and respondents characteristics. The research reported here attempts to deal with the respondent characteristics aspect of their statement. In a simulation a business student would ideally self- actualize himself to the role-playing task of a company executive. A change of role from that of a consumer to that of a business decision maker is a perceptional change that varies in degree from one student to another. The degree to which a student would connect with this role-playing activity of a business executive could well be determinable by his perception of how satisfied he is as a consumer. Satisfied consumers would positively view the actions of a business executive and actively participate in the business role-playing simulation activity. If these consumers have a negative view of the marketplace, the students interest and active participation in the business role-playing simulation would be greatly diminished-leading to overall poor results. A possible toot that can aid in understanding the degree of consumer discontent is the sociological construct of alienation. Researchers and social philosophers have for many years realized that a common reaction to social institutions is feelings of estrangement or alienation. Alienation has been defined in a variety of ways to denote those dehumanizing conditions in modern industrial society that deprive individuals of their power and potential to influence creatively the conditions of their own existence. Marx viewed industrial man as alienated (separated) from his work and its products, and also from himself. His social theory has been the basis for many of the ideas related to alienation. Eric Fromm interpreted alienation as a condition that results from an individuals need to conform to those institutionally defined expectations and segmented role demands of society. The result is a conformity to the impersonal norms of the social unit and automated role-playing without meaningful involvement. One of the more widely used definitions of alienation centers on Seemans’ separation of the concept into five components :2 Powerlessness: The expectancy or probability held by the individual that his own behavior cannot determine the occurrence of the outcomes, or reinforcements, he seeks. Meaninglessness: Lack of clarity on the part of the individual regarding what he ought to believe: or lack of clarity in the individuals standards for decision making. Normlessness: High expectancy that socially unapproved behaviors are required to achieve given goats. Isolation: The assignment of a low reward value to goals or beliefs that are typically highly valued in the given society. Self-Estrangement: Dependence on both extrinsic positive and negative sanctions that cause a disassociation between the individual and unrewarding activities. One of the first attempts to gain empirical insight into the process of alienation and how it affects the consumer was done by Pruden and Longman in the 1970's.3 They investigated the relationships of social isolation (anomie), attitudes toward marketing practices, belief in government intervention in the marketplace, and ethnic origin. The results indicated that anomie is related to negative attitudes toward marketing and a high belief in government intervention. Both Blacks and Mexican-Americans held stronger feelings in this direction than did Whites. A study by Lambert4 focused on powerlessness, normlessness, meaninglessness, and social isolation as they related to consumer dissatisfaction and their desire for change in the marketplace. Lambert concluded, that alienation is a potentially fruitful area for further explorations aimed at attempting to gain better insights into and understanding factors that fuel discontent and consumerism. Most recently a psychometric test for consumer alienation from the marketplace was developed by Allison. His findings suggest that a reliable and valid unidimensional measure of consumer alienation has been constructed with the ability to identify the degree to which they are satisfied or alienated. Allison states: to be able to use the construct for decision making, one first must know how alienated and non-alienated people differ in their processing, evaluation, and use of marketing information, inputs, and outputs. Research into consumer experiences and action in reference to specific product categories and industries should provide additional useful knowledge.5 This study is an attempt to measure the extent of consumer alienation of students and its effect upon their ability to apply themselves to a business simulation in which they are role-playing executives. Developments in Business Simulation & Experiential Exercises, Volume 8, 1981 161 HYPOTHESES H] Students with a high degree of consumer alienation will rate the simulation experience lower with respect to its usefulness in learning and Integrating course material and with respect to its overall appropriateness in an educational setting. H2 Students with a low degree of consumer alienation will rate the simulation experience higher with respect to is usefulness in learning and integrating course material and with respect to its overall appropriateness in an educational setting. METHODOLOGICAL PROCEDURE Thirty-nine senior business majors have been divided into teams (companies) of four members each to engage in the ‘Busim’ simulation in a business policy course. The Busim simulation is a genera’ management type requiring financial, marketing, and production decisions. This activity comprises approximately fifty percent of the course in terms of both time and grade. At the beginning of the simulations introduction each student was asked to complete the alienation questionnaire. These were tabulated to identify those individuals exhibiting the greatest extent of consumer alienation and those who do not. After completion of the course all students were asked to evaluate the simulation experience using those questions used by Chisholm et al. See appendix A for scales. DISCUSSION The nine scales used for measuring satisfaction with a simulation were combined into a single value for each participant by treating the most favorable response on each item as a “1 and the most unfavorable as a 5. Thus, a completely favorable rating would be "9" and a totally unfavorable evaluation would be 45’ using a Likert scale. The indifference point would be a 27". Similarly the alienation questionnaire items, which were based on a seven-point scale ranging from strongly agree to strongly disagree, were totaled for each respondent. An alienation score for each subject along with a satisfaction with the simulation score could then be analyzed. The overall coefficient of correlation for these two variables yielded an r value of only .189 which is not statistically significant at even the .1 level. While the coefficient is at least in the right direction (positive) we did not find a significant relationship in this study. One of the reasons for the lack of significant results may well be the lack of overall dissatisfaction on any subject’s part with the simulation exercise. With 27 as the indifference point, three students had scores of 27 but not one of the 39 had a higher value (which would have been some level of dissatisfaction). we were unprepared for this positive response given the students normal complaints during the semester. Similarly, the attention scores were not indicative of high levels of alienation from the market place. The overall average for alienation was 4.19 where 4.00 would have been neither positive nor negative. The most extreme negative score for all subjects was 5.2 where 7 would have been highly alienated. CONCLUSIONS This study is an attempt to measure the relationship, one exists, between consumer alienation and satisfaction with the simulation experience. While a positive relationship was found, r = .189, n = 39, the relationship was not statistically significant. With larger sample or with a group with greater variation in levels of satisfaction and alienation a significant relationship might be observed. As an exploratory study seeking to explain why some students express satisfaction with the simulation exercise while others strongly criticize it. This study has suggested yet another intervening variable. Developments in Business Simulation & Experiential Exercises, Volume 8, 1981 162 REFERENCES 1. Chisholm, T. , P. Krishnakumar, and J. Clay. An examination of the Perceived Effectiveness of Computer Simulation in a Classroom Setting as Affected by Game, Environmental and Respondent Characteristics." Insights into Experiential Pedagogy Proceedings. (Association for Business Simulation and Experiential Learning, 1979). 2. Seeman, Melvin. On the Meaning of Learning Alienation," American Sociological Review, Vol. 24, June, 1959, pp. 783-791. 3. Pruden, H., and D. Longman. “Race, Alienation and Consumerism, Journal of Marketing, 36 (July, 1972) pp. 58-63. 4. Lambert, Zarrel V. ‘Consumer Alienation: Some Correlates of Discontent, unpublished working paper, College of Business Administration, University of Florida, 1976. 5. Allison, Neil K. A Psychometric Development of a Test for Consumer Alienation from the Marketplace,” Journal of Marketing Research, Vol. XV, November, 1978, pp. 565-575. 6. Chisholm, T. et al. Table of Contents Volume 8, 1981 The Promotion: Human Sexuality in Organization The Simulation of Chaos Leadership Development in a Simulated Urban/Suburban (U/S) Environment Tomed: A Computer Game Emphasizing Social Responsibility/or/why the Pop-Top Can? Integrated Brain Activity and the Manager's Job: Utilizing the Troika Model What does R2 Have to do with a Product Management Course? An Analysis of the Effects of Jungian Problem-Solving Style Dimensions on Marketing Decisions Bargaining Behavior in Personal Selling and Buying Exchanges Extending the Simulation Product Life Cycle A Generalized Algorithm for Designing and Developing Business Simulations Operationalizing a Test of a Model of the Use of Simulation Games and Experiential Exercises Pygmalion and Perception: An Experiential Exercise Behavioral Consequences of Reward Regarding Employee Absenteeism in an Industrial Setting: An Operant Conditioning Approach The Simlab Program: The Use of Experimental Simulation and Process Analysis for the Development of Management and Organizations Designs for Research on Simulation-Games, Cases, and Other Experiential Exercises The Role of Students in The Case Method Weaknesses in Research Design Critical Variables in Research on the Educational Value of Management Games Research Questions for Cases Research on the Learning Effectiveness of Business Simulation Games - A Review of the State of the Science The Effects of Valuation Techniques on Holding Cost During Inflationary Periods: A Simulation Exercise The Operations Simulation - A Study in Game Development Applying Guided Design to the Production/Operations Management Course: A Progress Report and Evaluation Terminal Data Entry and Retrieval Systems Simulations and Microprocessors Microcomputers and Related Technology for Simulation Gaming Microcomputers - A New Technology for Innovations in Business Simulations Microprocessor Controlled Interactive Video Simulation Business Game Design: From Theory to Practice The Success of a Computerized Simulation in Microeconomic Pedagogy The Test Preview Game: Applying the Game Show Format Providing a Real World View of the Personal Function: A Simulation Finding an Effective Means of Teaching Managerial Behavioral Skills: Two Different Experiential Teaching Methods Compared A Management Development Program Based on the Experiential Learning Model Participant Type Differences in Response to Experiential Methods: An Informal Look Preparing Student Groups to Participate in Experiential Group Projects: An Organizational Development Approach An Instrument for the Assessment of Learning Dimensions: A Progress Report of the Learning Dimension Scale (LDS) An Empirical Analysis Relating the Learning Style Inventory to Memory and Logical Ability Teaching Styles in Simulation Experiential Learning Versus Traditional Teaching Styles Student Perceptions of Effective Teaching Behaviors Problems in Evaluation of Experiential Learning in Management Education Students' Perceptions of Learning by Simulation A Relative Evaluation of Experiential and Simulation Learning in Terms of Perceptions of Effected Changes in Students Overview of Computer Based Business Games in Business Policy Classes Behavioral Decision Theory and Business Policy Giving Accounting Students Writing Experience as Job Preparation Getting to First Base with MBO: An exercise for Writing and Evaluating Objectives Dimensions of Conflict in Experiential Learning Consumer Alienation and Perceived Relevance of the Business Simulation Using the Self-Reference Criterion to Simulate Culture in Internationalized Business Course Experiential Learning in a Cross Cultural Setting- The Practice of Simulation Approach to Business Education in Japanese Universities Student' Perceptions of the Use of a Computerized Simulation in Teaching Management Information Systems Using the Case Study Approach to Develop a Microcomputer Bases, Fully Integrated, Data Base Driven, Management Information System The Case Study as a Tool for Organizational Change: Applying the Steel Ax to the Designers of Management Information Systems Toward a Theory of Teaching Business Policy A Case Study in the Use of Experiential Learning (A Management Game Simulation) to Enhance Student Understanding of Strategy Evaluation and Policy Formulation Suggestions for Integration of the Business Administration Core Publishing Opportunities and Requirements for Business Simulation and Experiential Learning Materials How do we Apply Experiential Learning Intercollegiate Case Competitions for M.B.A. Students: Initiation and Implementation Teaching Business Policy and Strategy Using the Incident Process The Learning Co-Op Approach to the Core Policy Course Meeting the Managerial Skill Shortage - Is Academia Up to It? An Empirical Analysis of Experiential Learning Reinforcement International Experiential Learning: Experience is the Best Teacher Encouraging Student Participation During International Academic Programs European Summer Study Program: Can you, Should you, What Does it Take? Travel Seminars in Europe: How can I Direct One? International Experiential Learning: Student Evaluation ABSEL: Empirical Findings on the State of the Association Sensitivity of Performance Scores in Business Simulations Improving the Learning of a Business Simulation Game by Increasing the Process Content Student Participation in Deciding Performance Criteria for Grading in an OB Course: An Exercise and a Case Study Markup for Profit: A Simulated Self-Administered Experience in Retail Pricing The Investment Decision Game: An Experiential Learning Approach to Stock Market Decisions Through Gaming CHIPS: A Marketing Channels management Game External Validation: An Experimental Approach to Determining the Worth of Simulation Games Teaching Performance Appraisal Skills: An Experiential Approach In Support of Experiential learning: Results of a Follow-Up Survey The Introductory Management Course: Taking Theory Application One Step Further Decision Efficiency and Effectiveness in a Business Simulation The Implications of Cognitive Processing Variables and the Complex Decision Simulating the Simulation for Enhanced Player Rationality Simulation/Experiential Learning Audit