A SELF-EVALUATON BASED ON THE DISCUSSION AND DECISION IN EXPERTS' BUSINESS GAMING Developments in Business Simulation & Experiential Learning, Volume 27, 2000 48 A SELF-EVALUATION BASED ON THE DISCUSSION AND DECISION IN EXPERT S’ BUSINESS GAMING Arata Ichikawa, Ryutsu Keizai University Mieko Nakamura, Ryutsu Keizai University ABSTRACT This paper presents heuristics of Japanese business experts in business gaming. The heuristics that were derived through gaming and were based on Paper Plane Game shows their capability of comprehending team activities in a way from gestalt to detail. Issues and decisions extracted from their protocol can be used for not-yet experts to compare themselves with the experts; how they understand the situation and make decisions. Therefore, the extracts could be a useful motivation in encouraging players to debrief for “of-the-players,” “by-the-players,” and “for-the-players” in debriefing. SEMANTIC RICHNESS NEEDED In late 1970s, one of the authors was a scientific observer at the executives meeting in one of Japanese major computer makers, who were conducting their roles as another corporation’s executives in managerial simulation. There, they were acting as those who would have been executives of the corporation from which the simulation model, actually a simple financial one, had been built. Their dialogues for communication sounded at a highly strategic level in corporate management. Even on a simple board game, participants would do as real executives on condition that they would have experiences enough to run their own business. In order to evolve this implication into debriefing of gaming, research focuses on decisions of teams themselves in gaming instead of numerically rich outputs from simulation models (Ichikawa, Mukuda and Inaba, 1992). By applying Factor Analysis, the various decisions, which are of course numerical, can be interpreted inducing us to generate statements, which are a string of words, and then the strategy of each team can be evaluated only on the basis of decision’s consistency. For a game run, first each team is to establish their own goals through discussion and by writing them down to be clear enough. The teams are expected to have a logical correlation between their goals and a series of their decision-makings from the first round to the last round. The evaluation is based on how many degrees they have kept consistency between their goals and the interpretations on their decisions at each round. For an example, a certain team out of eight teams of a game run did indicate the consistency of their strategies like “Influencing consumer preference with brand image” at Round 2, “Producing high quality goods and selling them with intense sales promotion” at Round 3, “Conducting an advertising campaign and increasing advertising costs” at Round 4 and so on. Their initial strategies were “Brand image oriented”, “First class products”, and “Small business is beautiful”. The team showed the best team performance in strategic decision-making. ABSTRACTION AND DETAIL The next research target is to be based on discussions among players, to derive a thinking model of gestalt and an acting model of detail. The game employed is “Planes or bust” designed by Legg(1994); in this paper it is called Paper Plane Game for convenience. Paper Plane Game has four characters in terms of this research; (1) highly abstracted level, (2) Developments in Business Simulation & Experiential Learning, Volume 27, 2000 49 planning capability, (3) different roles, and (4) real manufacturing. To be mentioned here among them are (1) and (4) because these are essential for Japanese players. It is assumed that the attitudes of decision makers to their cognition, thinking, decision and behavior reflect their own culture. In Japanese culture, the traditional way of thinking originates from the totality of human being and the environment. The time and the space are a gestalt in a sense. For examples, western paintings use the perspective technique; Japanese traditional paintings such as Ukiyoe show both the total as general view and details as partly realistic drawing. Considering cultural differences, the highly abstracted level and the real manufacturing characteristics of Paper plane game correspond to the general view and the partly realistic drawing. Therefore, the game should be suitable for Japanese team activities aiming at knowledge creation, wisdom sharing and communication effectiveness. DIALOGUES, DECISION-MAKINGS AND ACTIONS The following protocol analysis represents results of team activities of Japanese business experts. They are considered to have achieved a level of standard for measurement. Min. Issues and Decisions 16 Debate of the investment for the machine on the bottleneck 20 Simulation on the effect on investment for the bottleneck 22 Measurement of the real time length on the bottleneck, experiment by all members 27 Agreement among all members that “Transport” does control all operations 31 The person allocated to “Write fuselage” starts practice 33 3-min. rehearsal starts 34 Opinion on the inefficiency of traffic lines 50 15-min. game run starts 54 Question about the starting time of the game run (no answer) 65 The game run ends 73 It is difficult for “Transport” to see the situation in full view According to a part of the dialogue above, it is clear that players can consider themselves as one of the subjects in the debriefing phase after they really participated in gaming as one of subjects. DEBRIEFING AND EVALUATON Debriefing is said to be the most important phase of any gaming. Practically however, it is one of the best examples of “sounds easy but difficult to do.” Most facilitators try to let players debrief by themselves and then often fall into an unsatisfactory conclusion. They need something good to motivate teams. Currently, a self-evaluation sheet of about 30 variables made of the protocol is available. It questions players about issues among the experts’ discussion, decision, and action. Through several gaming sessions, the self- evaluation sheet is being in test by letting players to compare their ones with the experts’ ones. Some players can evaluate by themselves and then they can get the correct answers (of course, there are many correct answers in this case). Further research should be taken on players’ written sheets being gathered. References Available Upon Request Table of Contents Volume 27, 2000 Internet International: A Simulation Exercise for Understanding Technological Innovation and customer Service In a Rapidly Growing Internet Server Company Simulations and Learning: Dialog and Directions Endnote Activity: A Tool for Integration of Course Content and Communication Skill Practice Incorporating Video as a Teaching Strategy in Interpersonal Communication Vision Quest: An Alternative Approach to Industry Analysis for MBA Courses in Strategic Strategic Management: An Evaluation of the Use of Three Learning Methods Trainer, Mentor, Educator: What Role for the College Business Instructor in the Next Century? Using the Internet and Shareware to Facilitate Computer Simulation in Distance Learning Classes Visual Modeling of Business Simulations Teaching about Information with Management Games A Self-Evaluation Based on the Discussion and Decision in Experts' Business Gaming The Restaurant Game Using Journals to Enhance Computer Simulation Based Learning Exercises to Facilitate Better Student Writing in the Undergraduate Strategy Class Identifying, Resolving, and Managing Common Ethical Dilemmas in the Workplace: An Experiential Approach Integrating the Digital Revolution into the Classroom The Wheel of Learning: An Integrative Business Curriculum Experiment The Changing Nature of Simulation Research: A Brief ABSEL History Perspectives on Simulation & Gaming's Review Process Experiential Learning Across Disciplines: Mixing International Business and Accounting Simulating Governmental Effects on Economic Development Internationalizing the Introduction to Business Course Using an International Text and Domestic Simulation with a Twist Using Stock Value as the Performance Measure in a Business Simulation Game Introducing Cross-Elasticities in Demand Algorithms Validating a Model of Currency Valuation An Exercise for Exploring the Relationship between Jungian Psychological Types and Organizational Politics Exercise: Preparing Financial Reports Using the Group Categorizing Technique Effect of Trust and Cultural Beliefs on Negotiation Processes: Data from an Experiential Role Play Experiential Learning Gets Stamp of Approval From the Boyer Commission Talent Search 2000 - An Experiential Activity to Help Strengthen Skills in Employee Recruitment and Selection Clemson University's Collaborative Learning Environment Initial Data on a Test Bank Assessing Total Enterprise Simulation Learning Changing the Assessment Paradigm: Using Student Portfolios To Assess Learning from Simulations How We Learn and Why We Don't: The Cognitive Profile Model: A Workshop in Teaching to Reach Your Students Knowing Thyself: A Portfolio Approach to Student Self-Assessment Collaborative Learning and Web-Based Instruction in a Cognitive Apprenticeship Model Teamwork Attributes in a Classroom Simulation Virtual Teams: Meeting the Next Challenge for Experiential Education New Age Learning: Nuance or Nonsense Developing Charisma: An Experiential Exercise in Leadership Problems and Solutions in Going Web-based with an Agribusiness Simulation Creating a Comprehensive Web-Enhanced Classroom Your Class is in Session, Now What? The Challenges of Teaching On-line An Application of Process Control Charts for Attributes as a Form of Classroom Assessment for Experiential Learning Work Goals and Life Aspirations: Do You Have What it Takes to be an Entrepreneur An Exercise to Develop Initiative: Possible Dream? The Ball Point Pen Assembly Company Management Game Review System Development Total Enterprise Simulations and Optimizing the Decision Set: Assessing Student Learning Across Decision Periods Facilitating Learning in the New Millennium with the Complete Online Decision Entry, System (CODES) The Marketing Management Experience The Right Venue for Your Simulation One More Time: Overall Dominance in Total Enterprise Simulation Performance A Profile of ABSEL Conference Attendees Learning Readiness: An Underappreciated Yet Vital Dimension in Experiential Learning Active Learning in a Professional Undergraduate Curriculum The Problem Is - They Think Differently! Cultures Integration in Mergers and Acquisitions: Putting Managers Together in a Business Simulation The Global Business Game: A Strategic Management and International Business Simulation