Teamwork for Decision-Making Through Games: The Case of On-Line “Manage-Art” Page 244 - Developments in Business Simulation and Experiential Learning, volume 40, 2013 ABSTRACT Decision-making is a process that involves all people and is critical in everyday situations, not only in companies and organizations, but also in people´s personal life. Most of the time decisions are influenced by external variables such as time, participants, amount of knowledge, possible results, available resources, specific situations, among others, that can skew the decision-making process; therefore organizations form working groups to stimulate discussion and analysis, to obtain an efficient decision- making process that leads into successful decision. However is difficult to teach its importance through conventional learning tools. This paper proposes the on- line game Manage-Art to determine the affectivity in group decision making versus individual decisions in daily situations, presenting description, validation and results of the game. INTRODUCTION Games are used in recent years as a training and learning tool in different scenarios such as schools, universities and organizations; and Echeverría et al. (2011) suggest that the use of video games as educational tools is slowly becoming an accepted practice in learning environments, achieving at least one of the following purposes of a game (Gómez, 2010): Teaching, reinforcing, verification, measurement, creations development or socialization experience. Kebritchi & Hirumi (2008) proposed that educational games are effective teaching tools for hard and complex procedures because:  Use action instead of explanation.  Create personal motivation and satisfaction.  Accommodate multiple learning styles and skills.  Reinforce mastery skills.  Provide interactive and decision making-contexts Similarly Ben-Zvi (2010) argues that games present an effective alternative to traditional teaching methods because they provide a link between abstract concepts and real world problems, however the key to success is to reach a balance between fun and learning in a game (Moreno-Ger et al, 2008). Design and validation of games with educational purposes must incorporate an educational dimension, which defines how to build and integrate the game as a learning tool, and a ludic dimension, which determines how to create an engaging and fun experience (Echeverría et al., 2011). Unfortunately, this is not easy because game design is not a precise science, which is mostly due to the subtle nature of fun (Moreno-Ger et al., 2008). Games objective is to offer students the opportunity to learn by doing, engaging them in a simulated experience of the real- world, to immerse them in an authentic management situation (Ben-Zvi, 2010); this can help students achieve not only technical capability, but also a managerial perspective of problems which are important motivational and learning tools that present a novel approach for teaching decision making (Ben-Zvi, 2010), managerial capabilities and general concepts of different fields of study. This way playing games is increasingly linked to learning and distinct learning outcomes that playing digital games can have had been identified (Connolly et al., 2012):  Cognitive outcomes: including declarative, procedural and strategic knowledge.  Affective outcomes: beliefs or attitudes. Additional is important to mention that one of the main bases to construct and design games is the game theory that deals with the study of choice when decisions depend on others, under some rational arguments and known and given restrictions (Plata, 2008). This paper presents the on-line game “Manage-Art”, an educational game to reinforce some special topics related to decision-making process individually and by Teamwork for Decision-Making Through Games: The Case of On-Line “Manage-Art” Miguel David Rojas Universidad Nacional de Colombia mdrojas@unal.edu.co Juan Esteban Alis Universidad Nacional de Colombia jealisr@unal.edu.co Laura Marcela Londoño Universidad Nacional de Colombia lmlondonov@unal.edu.co Page 245 - Developments in Business Simulation and Experiential Learning, volume 40, 2013 teams. This game aims to show participants the importance of decision-making process in companies and the way it becomes a key successful factor for effective teamwork (Rojas, Alis & Londoño, 2012). The paper is organized in sections as follows: In section 2 some basic concepts of decision-making process are shown as the central topic that the game aims to reinforce. In section 3 the methodology, description and on -line environment of the game is presented. Later in section 4 a summary of the results of the game application are shown and in section 5 some conclusions are presented. Finally in section 6 some future work related to the game Manage-Art is described. DECISION MAKING PROCESS “Decision making is the study of identifying and choosing alternatives based on the values and preferences of the decision maker. Making a decision implies that there are alternative choices to be considered, and in such a case we want not only to identify as many of these alternatives as possible but to choose the one that best fits with our goals, objectives, desires, values, and so on” (Fülöp, 2005). Decision-making process takes place in people everyday situations and is critical because can influence positive or negative the activities of a hole company. A correct decision-making process can lead a successful business, but a wrong decision-making process may lead to bankruptcy. Over the past several years the use of groups and teams in organizations has grown significantly, focusing in the influence that groups have on decisions and the decision process (Moon et al., 2003). Research in group decision making has discovered that, compared to individuals, groups sometimes make better decisions (Moon et al., 2003) and have tried to understand how people make decisions in real-world contexts that are meaningful and familiar to them (Moe, Aurum, & Dybå, 2012) by the use of simulation programs or games that allows participants to make decisions in controlled environments. A general decision making process can be divided into the following steps (Fülöp, 2005):  Define the problem.  Determine requirements.  Establish goals.  Identify alternatives.  Define criteria.  Select a decision making tool.  Evaluate alternatives against criteria.  Validate solutions against problem statement. There are three general levels of decision-making in organizations depending on the purpose of the management activity and they differ from one another in terms of information requirements(Moe et al., 2012).  Strategic decisions: Related to organizational goals and objectives.  Tactical decisions: Related to identification and use of resources.  Operational decisions: Deal with ensuring effectiveness of day-to-day operations within the organization. Is important to notice that decision-making process is also influenced by external variables such as information availability, experience of the decision maker, people who take part in the process and their educational level, among others. Exhibit 1 Methodology used for the game design. STEP DESCRIPTION 1 Identify the theme 2 Establish the purpose 3 Identify the instructional objectives 4 Identify and define general concepts of the theme 5 Select candidate techniques 6 Select the appropriate technique(s) according to characterization 7 Incorporation of specific knowledge 8 Development of initial tests 9 Consolidation of the final version 10 Elaborate an evaluation survey Page 246 - Developments in Business Simulation and Experiential Learning, volume 40, 2013 GAME MANAGE-ART METHODOLOGY The game Manage-Art was developed with a methodology proposed at the Universidad Nacional de Colombia, which consist of 10 fundamental steps to design games based on experiences, starting from the identification of the theme to testing and corrections of the final game version (Gómez, 2010). The steps of the methodology are shown in Exhibit 1: The original game was developed and validated with the mentioned methodology; then it was adapted in an on- line environment but maintaining the same structure. Some of the characteristics of the game are shown in Exhibit 2 (Rojas, Alis & Londoño, 2012). DESCRIPTION OF THE GAME The game Manage-Art was designed in 2010 as final work of the postgraduate course “Management games”, offered in the Universidad Nacional de Colombia, School of Mines. The game was initially designed as a face to face game, were participants have the opportunity to see their peers and discuss with them the best sequence. In 2011 the game was adapted in an on-line environment, with the same principles, rules and objectives of the original game. The purpose of the game Manage-Art is to determine the affectivity of individual decision making versus group decisions in daily situations. The game scenario is a specific situation of a company in crisis, with different characteristics that players have to take into account to make decisions, first individually and then in teams. The possible decisions or alternatives to solve the problem are given, and the goal of the game is to determine the sequence of alternatives, in an importance order, that could save a company in the specific situation. The optimal sequence of alternatives was determined by a group of four professors, experts in the fields of management, finance and strategy planning of the Universidad Nacional de Colombia. PROCEDURE The game starts by reading the scenario of the game and the different alternatives that participants can choose. Exhibit 3 shows the on-line environment of the game and the scenario for which participants will need to make decisions. Participants must establish a sequence of alternatives that could solve the problem of the given situation. The alternatives of solution are given in the cards (A to J), and participants can consult the alternatives at any time of the game by doing a double click on each card. To establish the sequence, participants have to move the cards into the empty spaces (1 to 8) being number 1, the first alternative to be done to solve the problem. Two of the given alternatives should not be used. This is an individual phase, and participants have 15 minutes to establish their own sequence. Exhibit 4 shows how the alternatives are sequenced by participants. After the individual phase, participants are organized randomly in teams of 4 people and have 10 minutes to discuss and analyze the given alternatives and the individual sequences, in order to obtain a common solution to the given situation. Communication between participants is done through a chat. The Exhibit 5 shows the on-line environment in which participants determine a sequence of alternatives by teams. The environment of the team phase shows the moves of all team members, but each participant can only manipulate his space. In the center of the screen the sequence of the group is shown, and it is determinate by consensus, that is, an alternative is established in a position of the group solution if the mayor part of the team members has the same alternative in the same position. If one of the team members abandons the game, it continues with the other participants and they establish the sequence. Individual and group results of the game are collected and entered into a matrix that qualifies the sequences when compared with the optimal. To obtain the results of the game a system of points was developed, with the purpose of obtaining a winner participant and a winner team during the game (Rojas, Alis & Londoño, 2012). Exhibit 2 Characteristics of Manage-Art. THEME Decision-making process as a fundamental procedure in companies and in teamwork. PURPOSE Teach the importance of the decision-making process in companies and the value of teamwork in decision-making. INSTRUCTIONAL OBJECTIVES  Identify the importance of decision-making process in team- work.  Compare the efficiency of individual decisions versus group decisions.  Establish patterns of decision-making process in team members.  Show the influence of some team members in decision making- process. Page 247 - Developments in Business Simulation and Experiential Learning, volume 40, 2013 Exhibit 3 On-line environment of Manage-Art. Exhibit 4 Individual phase of Manage-Art. Page 248 - Developments in Business Simulation and Experiential Learning, volume 40, 2013 For each correct answer will be given 5 points, if the answer is a place above or below the correct answer will be given 3 points and if the answer is 2 places above or below the correct answer will be given 1 point. The maximum score of the game is 50 points, 5 points for each correct answer, and it corresponds to the optimal sequence (Rojas, Alis & Londoño, 2012). Finally individual, collective and optimal results are compared to establish differences, make a feedback and obtain conclusions of the individually and team decision making process (Rojas, Alis & Londoño, 2012). GAME OUTPUTS The game in its on-line version has been applied 3 times to different groups of students in the Universidad Nacional de Colombia. Exhibit 6 shows the characterization of the groups in which the game has been applied. Results obtained in each test of the game are shown in Exhibit 7 shows the outputs of the three test of the game. The lines show individual and group scores of each participant and the average of the individual results. In the final part of the game a feedback with participants is done; individual results are shown and analyzed, so each participant knows his performance, then group results are exposed and everybody can see the evolution in the decision-making process. In the tests is possible to observe that in most of the cases the decision- making process is improved by team work. Exhibit 8 shows a comparison between the final scores of the test of the game. In all the tests the best individual score were overcome by best group score and similarly, the worse individual score were overcome by worse group score. In general terms groups’ results were higher than individual results. In Exhibit 9 the performance of participants is exposed. It shows percentage and amount of participants that improve individual decision-making process through team work. Exhibit 5 Group phase of Manage-Art. Exhibit 6 Information of participants. TEST COURSE NUMBER OF PARTICIPANTS DESCRIPTION 1 Management games 21 Postgraduate curse 2 Management theory 20 Undergraduate curse 3 Management games 20 Postgraduate curse Page 249 - Developments in Business Simulation and Experiential Learning, volume 40, 2013 Between 75 and 80 % of participants improved their individual decisions by working in teams; between 10% and 20% of participants did not improve in group decision- making process, and 4,8% to 10% of participants stayed the same. Initially is possible to infer that group decision- making process is more efficient that individual. CONCLUSIONS As an alternative to traditional learning tools used in classrooms, the on-line game Manage-Art is proposed as a new training tool to teach the importance of team decision- making process and show the efficiency of teams versus individuals. The application of the game allows participants to take part of a decision-making process, first individually and then by groups, giving them the opportunity to discuss, share experiences, analyze specific situations, identify failures and obtain a feedback, that leads to a better decision-making process and consequently to better results. Participants expressed that they got better results because experience, discussion, arguments and all the decision making process of the team convinced them of a better sequence and allow to reach an agreement with the other team members. The results shown in this paper are initial tests of the on-line game Manage-Art, therefore is not possible to obtain precise conclusion about the participants or the game. However with the application was possible to easily identify an important improvement in individual decision- making process through teams and determine team and members. The game is a potential tool to diagnose the functionality of teams, identify failures and adapt them to specific company’s situations that needs a group of experts that work in a synergic way to solve problems. FUTURE WORK Some of the future work to be done with the on-line game Manage-Art is:  Apply the game to different groups of people in order to validate the initial results and obtain patterns of behavior to infer characteristics of the team members.  Determine which type of group is better taking decisions (Groups of women, groups of men or mixed groups).  Create new scenarios of the game that allows it to be applied to people of different fields such as health, agriculture, and mining, among others.  Establish the game as a tool to diagnose the functionality of teams, identify failures and adapt them to specific company’s situations. Exhibit 7 Output of the three tests of Manage-Art. Page 250 - Developments in Business Simulation and Experiential Learning, volume 40, 2013 REFERENCES Ben-Zvi, T. (2010). The efficacy of business simulation games in creating Decision Support Systems: An experimental investigation. Decision Support Systems, 49(1), 61–69. Connolly, T. M., Boyle, E. A., MacArthur, E., Hainey, T., & Boyle, J. M. (2012). A systematic literature review of empirical evidence on computer games and serious games. Computers & Education, 59(2), 661–686. Echeverría, A., García-Campo, C., Nussbaum, M., Gil, F., Villalta, M., Améstica, M., & Echeverría, S. (2011). A framework for the design and integration of collaborative classroom games. Computers & Education, 57(1), 1127–1136. Fülöp, J. (2005). Introduction to decision making methods. Laboratory of Operations Research and Decision Systems, Computer and Automation Institute, Hungarian Academy of Sciences, 1. Gómez Álvarez, M. C. (2010). Definición de un método para el diseño de juegos orientados al desarrollo de habilidades gerenciales como estrategia de entrenamiento empresarial. Universidad Nacional de Colombia. Retrieved from http:// www.bdigital.unal.edu.co/1968/ Kebritchi, M., & Hirumi, A. «2c». (2008). Examining the pedagogical foundations of modern educational computer games. Computers & Education, 51(4), 1729 –1743. Moe, N. B., Aurum, A., & Dybå, T. (2012). Challenges of shared decision-making: A multiple case study of agile software development. Information and Software Technology, 54(8), 853–865. Moon, H., Conlon, D. E., Humphrey, S. E., Quigley, N., Devers, C. E., & Nowakowski, J. M. (2003). Group decision process and incrementalism in organizational decision making. Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, 92(1–2), 67–79. Moreno-Ger, P., Burgos, D., Martínez-Ortiz, I., Sierra, J. L., & Fernández-Manjón, B. (2008). Educational game design for online education. Computers in Human Behavior, 24(6), 2530–2540. Plata, J. (2008). Los «juegos gerenciales»: el presente de la gerencia. Econografos. Escuela de Administración de Empresas y Contaduría Pública. Rojas López, M. D.; Alis, J. E. & Londoño, L. M. (2012). The design and validation of the game Manage-Art is a proposal to train in the art of decision-making. Revista Dyna. Under revision. Exhibit 8 Test scores comparison. FIRST TEST SECOND TEST THIRD TEST Individual Group Individual Group Individual Group Best score 38 41 42 42 26 33 Worse score 8 30 11 20 6 16 Total Average 22,12 18,28 14,24 Exhibit 9 Improvement of test scores. FIRST TEST SECOND TEST THIRD TEST Participants Percentage Participants Percentage Participants Percentage Improved 16 76,2% 16 80% 15 75% Not Improved 4 19% 2 10% 4 20% Stayed the same 1 4,8% 2 10% 1 5% Table of Contents Volume 40, 2013 Leo Investor SERIOUS PLAY: ON-LINE PEPULATOR SERIOUS PLAY:ON-LINE GAME "MANAGE-ART" The Game Within the Simulation Game the Research Method Concept and Project With Game Design Implementation Managing Human Resources Simulation Rising Stars: A Study of Creativity as Experiental Learning in County Government Why do Gen Y Students Study Abroad? The Relationship Between Individual Growth and the Intent to Study Abroad Our Favorite Assignment: The In-Basket Activity Mirror-Mirror: How Can We Better Understand Our Consumption Behavior? Reflective Thinking, Writing and Imagery as Tools to Better Understand Abstract Marketing Concepts Increasing Intuitive Decision Making Speed and Accuracy by Further Understanding Intuitive Decision Making Using Emotional Means Group Exams: Are they Relevant and Reliable as a learning Tool? Integrative Learning: Exploring Opportunities in Business Simulations Simulated Tabletop Exercise for Risk Management - Anti Bio-Terrorism Multi Scenario Simulated Tabletop Exercise Simulated Tabletop Exercise for Electric Power Saving Management in a Small Organization Merging the Case Method and Simulation in Management Education: Is it Possible? Experiential Learning in Accelerated Human Resource Management Courses Digital Game Building as Assessment: A Study of Secondary Students' Experience Using an Investment Fund Simulation Integrated with a Business Game Creating Simulation Conditions Based On Real World Data Simulation Games in Training New Management Methods A Summary Overview of Cultural Differences in Higher Education Innovations And Future Directions In Education: Case Review For Best Online Teaching Practices An Implicit Measure of Forecasting Accuracy Immediate Feedback and Assessment Technique (IF-AT) testing forms: An overview of the tool and uses Teaching Secondary Mathematics: Pre-service Teachers' Digital Game Design, Pedagogy and 21st Century Skills Follow The Leader II Business Simulations: From Punch Cards to Web-Based University Engagement: Good Neighbors Budget Allocation Exercise Customizing Business Simulations: An Exploration and a Hierarchy A Review of the Simulation Research in the Academy of Management Journal: Suggestions for Strengthening the Research Conducted by ABSEL Members ABSEL Reflections: 40 Years Of Excellence, Now Going Forward How Many Options do Multiple-Choice Questions Really Have? The Management/Accounting Simulation Now 100% Web-based Design, Server Side Programming, and Implementation A Large-Scale Game Test of Early-Determined Game Finishes Large-Scale Business Games for Assurance of Learning Purposes The Gamification Of Education OB Simulation: A Hands-On Demonstration Converting Simulations for the Online Environment: The New Ginseng Game Repositioning Brands with the Web-Based Product Positioning Map Graphics Package Implications of Regulatory Focus Theory for Simulation and Experiential Learning Riskware: A Game for Teaching Software Project Risk Management Teamwork for Decision-Making Through Games: The Case of On-Line "Manage-Art" Virtual Pepulator, a Model for Teaching Negotiation Small-Scale Business Games for Assurance of Learning Purposes Incorporating Intellectual Property Issues into a Business Simulation© Nationalization and Privatization in a Computer-Assisted Business Game An Investigation of the Relationship of Plan Quality, Forecast Accuracy and Earnings Performance Under Equal and Unequal Starting Positions in Marketing Positions in Marketing Simulations Measuring the Performance Ranking Curve in Marketing Simulation Games The Effectiveness of SDM Method in Business Simulation Game 40 years of Brazilian S&G - Analysis and Perspectives Accounting For Externalities: Harnessing The "Face-In-The-Mirror" Phenomenon The Role Of Simulations In Organizational Learning: Building Individual Absorptive Capacity Assessing Project Management as an Academic Learning Outcome (ALO) At the Inflection Point: Designing Army Assessments "Economics in Practice" A Simulation Game for High School Students Teaching the Basics of Economics and Entrepreneurship Fueling the Force: Exploring Leader Priorities Implementing Mental Models: Extending Insight and Whole Person Learning Using Business Simulations To Introduce Business Concepts