ABSEL: EMPIRICAL FINDINGS ON THE STATE OF THE ASSOCIATION Developments in Business Simulation & Experiential Exercises, Volume 8, 1981 223 ABSEL: EMPIRICAL FINDINGS ON THE STATE OF THE ASSOCIATION James W. Gentry Oklahoma State University Joseph Wolfe, University of Tulsa ABSTRACT A re-examination of ABSEL members' opinions and attitudes about various topics of concern to the Association was undertaken with a more complete data base. ABSEL scored very high regarding the supportive and open atmosphere off its Conferences and the currency of Its teaching techniques while it scored lower in the areas of research quality. Other conclusions were drawn regarding programs for spouses, the use of practitioners, and sites and meeting dates for future conferences, as well as the sources of opinion divergencies existing within the Association. INTRODUCTION As befits any professional group, ABFEL has demonstrated long-term interest in improvement, self-evaluation and criticism. These Interests have most recently been evidenced in Goosen’s [1] 1977 paper and program sessions in 1979 and 1980 on the future of ABSEL. This paper, which is the result of a charge given to the two newly-elected Directors- at-Large, reports the findings a larger data-based survey of ABSEL's 1980 Conference attendees to determine certain views held by its membership. METHODOLOGY This study used a survey questionnaire designed by Duane Hoover with the help of ABSEL's National Advisory Board and other officers and remembers of the Association. Hoover had attempted census of the members attending the 1980 Conference but only 44 of the 97 attendees completed the questionnaire. Given a desire to poll the entire membership, list of non-attending members was compiled by the Associations Executive Director, David Fritzsche, and another list of non-responding conference attendees was created by comparing the attendance list with the addresses given on the completed questionnaires already collected. A summary of the response rates for the three different groups, attendees, non-responding attendees, and non-attendees is presented In Table 1. An overall response rate of approximately 67.5% was obtained from ABSEL's 163 member record for 1978-1980. A copy of the questionnaire is not included here but the nature and phraseology of the questions can he deduced from the items in Table 2 - 6. The instrument covered ABSEL's image, meeting dates and sites, future actions, and demographic characteristics. Our paper will follow that format. IMAGE FINDINGS The questionnaire's first section dealt with the Association’s image and the atmosphere of it’s annual Conference. The results are shown in Table 2. ABSEL rates very high with more than 80% responding “very good" or "good on the following dimensions: enthusiasm, supportive atmosphere, and currency of teaching techniques. More than 70% of the respondents rated ABSEL “very good’ or good’ on the dimensions of open discussions, proceedings, interdisciplinary nature, and the ‘ABSEL style. On the other hand, those dimensions receiving less than 50% ratings of "very good’ or ‘good’ were programs for spouses, membership promotion, image, in.- Developments in Business Simulation & Experiential Exercises, Volume 8, 1981 224 elusion of practitioners, quality of research, continuity of research efforts, and demonstrations. These poorly-rated dimensions were often associated with relatively high non- response rates which could reflect either the lack of an opinion, an unwillingness to cast a negative response, or a lack of understanding of the question. Summarizing this section’s results, it appears that AESEL is doing sane things very well and has problems in other areas. The strong teaching orientation and the informal and supportive Conference atmosphere are strong virtues which need to be maintained, while simultaneously, the academic aspects, such as research quality and its continuity, and the quality of research presentations, need to be improved. It would seem that membership promotion, programs for spouses, and demonstrations could be enhanced without affecting ABSEL’S pedagogical orientation or its supportive atmosphere. On the other hand, improving research quality, and consequently ABSEL's image, may conflict with the Association’s strengths by interjecting a harsh and judgmental element into its meetings and paper review process. Basically supportive steps should be taken to improve research quality and measures such as ‘best paper awards and JELS. As a subscription to this journal is included in the Association’s membership dues a serious problem exists either with the journal’s subscription list or the membership’s desire to stay current with the literature. Approximately 18% of the respondents failed to rate the Journal and another 9% rated it neutrally. TIMING OF ABSEL MEETINGS Approximately 51% of the respondents rated the time of year of ABSEL meetings as “very good” or “good,” while only 19% rated it ‘bad’ or “very bad.’ Results of other questions dealing with the timing of ABSEL meetings are shown in Table 3. Only 8% of the respondents agreed that spring meetings might prevent their at tending future AESEL meetings, while 77% disagreed. These results offer strong support for holding AESEL meetings in the spring semester. Other problems are evident, however, as 45% of the respondents agreed that travel money tends to run out by AESEL time. Moving to a fall meeting might not solve these problems though, as 47% disagreed (compared to 35% that agreed) that travel money would be easier to acquire in the fall. One problem associated with a spring Conference is that papers must be submitted early in the fall semester, which does not provide a semester between the Conference and the due date for the conduct of classroom research. This problem was referred to as a "summer slump" in the questionnaire. The number of respondents who agreed that they experienced a summer slump (32%) was very close to the number that disagreed (33%). The questionnaire also examined the best months for the annual meeting. If the meeting was held in the spring the months of February, March and April appear to be equally popular. October and November were the most popular choices for a fall Conference. MEETING SITE PREFERENCES The respondents were asked which part of the country they preferred for a meeting site, which cities they preferred, and whether they preferred a college town or a convention city. The results are shown in Table 4. More than 40% of the respondents indicated that they preferred conference sites in the Southeast, Rockies, West Coast, or Southwest areas. After eliminating cities recently used by AESEL for its meetings, San Francisco, Las Vegas, Atlanta, Boston, San Diego, Miami and Phoenix were the cities most frequently chosen. A larger percentage (58%) rated convention cities favor- ably, but a substantial percentage (46%) also rated college towns “very good” and “good.” FUTURE ACTIONS BY ABSEL This section of the questionnaire asked the respondents to evaluate several future actions which could be taken by ABSEL. These results are shown in Table 5. The question of whether ABSEL should affiliate with a larger organization was answered with a resounding “No.” 68% agreed that AESEL should stay independent and 59% disagreed that AESEL should affiliate. If ABSEL did decide to affiliate, the consensus was to affiliate with AIDS or the Academy of Management. A strong interest was also expressed in ABSEL sponsoring a national collegiate gaming competition. The proposed ‘mini-workshop similar to the OB Teaching Conference’ was also supported, although Developments in Business Simulation & Experiential Exercises, Volume 8, 1981 225 the majority of respondents apparently were unfamiliar with the concept. PROFILE OF ABSEL MEMBERS Table 6 shows a demographic profile of ABSEL's members. The modal member Is between 30 and 39 years of age1 is an Associate Professor, and has attended two other conferences in the past year. Approximately 70% of the respondents indicated a strong interest in simulation gaming and in experiential exercises. Approximately 56% of the respondents also expressed strong Interest in the use of cases. Ten percent of the respondents had attended all six of ABSEL's previous conferences while another 13% had at- tended five of the six. About one-fourth of the respondents indicated that they had attended the first conference in Oklahoma City, while 60% had attended the 1979 ABSEL meeting in New Orleans. CROSS-TABULATION ANALYSIS A chi-square analysis was also undertaken on differences in opinion which could be associated with factors such as the respondent’s age, academic rank, and meeting attendance. The results reported are all significant p=.05. Given the high number of relationships investigated, the number of significantly different relationships is quite small indicating that ABSEL's membership is quite homogeneous in its opinions. Dallas attendance, initial non-response and non-attendance. The non-attending members rated the quality of ABSEL presentations and the proceedings lower. As one would expect, the non-attendees were also most likely to indicate that they would not be able to attend a spring conference. Those completing the questionnaire at the conference were the most likely to favor ABSEL affiliating with another organization, while the initial nonrespondents were the most strongly against affiliation. Interest in ABSEL sponsoring a national gaming competition was greatest among those who filled the questionnaire out at the conference. Additionally non-attendees were the most likely riot to respond to the image questions. Age. Older respondents expressed a more favorable image of ABSEL. Respondents over the age of 60 were Developments in Business Simulation & Experiential Exercises, Volume 8, 1981 226 more likely to have attended the first ABSEL meeting, to be interested in simulation gaming, to favor holding the conference in a college town, and to favor Minneapolis or Tulsa as a meeting site. Respondents under the age of 40 were more likely to like experiential exercises and prefer Denver as a meeting site. Rank. Full professors were most likely to rate ABSEL less favorably in terms o the quality of research and the currency of the teaching technology. These professors were also the most strongly opposed to ABSEL's affiliation with sane other organization, they were likely to have attended the first four ABSEL meetings, were most interested in holding the conference in a college town, and were least interested in holding the conference in Denver or Phoenix. Associate professors were most opposed to moving ABSEL meetings to the fall while Assistant Professors expressed the most interest in experiential exercises. Number of Other Conferences Attended. Respondents who had attended two or three other Conferences last year were more likely to rite the proceedings more favor- ably. Respondents attending two or more Conferences were more likely to express preferences for Phoenix, Denver, the Rockies area, and a college town as a meeting site, and those attending fewer Conferences were more likely to choose Boston as a meeting site. Number of Past ABSEL Meetings Attended. Respondents who had attended more ABSEL meetings were more likely to rate ABSEL's enthusiasm, supportive atmosphere, quality of presentations, “style,” and interdisciplinary nature more favorably. Those who had attended more than three previous meetings were much more interested in ABSEL sponsoring a national gaming competition and in simulation gaming in Those who had attended three or fewer meetings were more likely to be interested in experiential exercises and cases. Those who have attended more meetings were more interested in the Southwest, Louisville, and Tulsa as meeting sites and less interested in Washington D.C. u a meeting site. CONCLUSIONS To a large extent, the results of this survey are very consistent with the sane conclusions reached in the panel discussions held at the 1979 and 1980 Conferences. ABSEL has an image problem, but its members find that the meetings provide an informal and supportive atmosphere. The research revealed other conclusions of interest. There is little sentiment favoring affiliation with a larger organization, arid although travel money is a problem, spring meetings are still favored. ABSEL apparently started with a very strong emphasis on computer-based gaming but newer members are more Interested in experiential exercises. More attention should be directed towards improving membership promotion, the inclusion of practitioners, demonstrations and programs for spouses. Although the heightening of ABSEL’s research quality presents a dilemma to the organization, current steps appear to be generally supportive of that end. REFERENCES [1] Goosen, K.R. ‘An Analysis of ABSEL: Its Past Achievements and Future Prospects.’ in Carl C. Neilson (ed.) New Horizons in Simulation Games and Experiential Learning, (Wichita, Kansas: Wichita State University, 1977), pp. 207-214. 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