Serge Poisson - de Haro

Experiential Learning CongressESMT Berlin

25-26 November 2010

Our inspiration Use of a competitive strategy simulation at the start of

the MBA program at HEC Montréal.

Four main goals:

“Live” decision-making process of a management team

Self-assessment of skills and experiences by students

Preview of content of MBA program

Team building effort - work together for next 12 weeks.

Feedback of the students always ecstatic

what is happening exactly?

What is happening?

What makes simulation so special?

Sense of reality

Enough illusion of reality to induce real world-like responses

Sense of enjoyment

Excellent feedback from students

Good fit with strategic management objectives?

Strategic management course objectives

To integrate (usually used at end of MBA program) (Stephen, Parente, & Brown, 2002)

interdependent functional areas

analytical process that incorporates multiple perspectives

To develop necessary skills needed to manage firms (Mintzberg & Gosling, 2002)

Simulation in strategic management education

Most realistic business decision-making environment possible in a classroom setting (Hornaday & Curran, 1996).

Join together theory and various real world decisions, and encourage strategic thinking (Faria, 2001)

Understand the integration of several functions of the firm in a bird’s eye view (Keys and Wolfe, 1990)

Widely used (Wolfe & Luethge, 2003), but not as much as cases (Fowler & Scott, 1996)

Why simulation is less widely used than cases? Overemphasis on analytical skills in MBA programs

Learning is less related to professor performance

Professor is expected to give continuous feedback

Time and energy consuming

More insights on our study! Hard versus soft skills (Wagner and Moffett, 2000)

Hard skills are linked to analytical decision making

Technical skills: knowlege in main disciplinary and functionalareas of business

Conceptual skills: ability of problem solving

More insights (Contd.) Hard versus soft skills

Soft skills are linked to dealing with human nature (Elmuti, 2004)

Human skills: people management and interpersonal skills(Helfhill and Nielsen, 2007)

Societal skills: dealing with issues surrounding the firm’senvironment

More insights (contd.)

Conventionally accepted that simulations are useful tools in developing hard skills (Gunz, 1995)

Less accepted that simulations are of use to soft skills development (Kachra and Schnietz, 2008)

Something to explore…

Constructs1st

level Management Skills

2nd

level

Hard Management Skills Soft Management Skills

3rd

level

Technical skills

(H1A)

Conceptual skills

(H1B)

Human skills

(H2A)

Societal skills

(H2B)

4th

level

Accounting/Finance (1Aa)

Production/Logistics (1Ab)

Marketing/Sales (1Ac)

Goal setting (1Ba)

Action orientation (1Bb)

Initiative taking (1Bc)

Helping (2Aa)

Leadership (2Ab)

Relationship (2Ac)

Ethics (2Ba)

Quality of worklife (2Bb)

Org.-env. fit (2Bc)

Research Methodology Data: 200 MBA students representative of MBA students

(high undergraduate GPAs, previous business experience and substantial GMAT scores)

Instrument: use of internet questionnaire before starting and after finishing the simulation

Constructs: measurement of the effectiveness of the simulation method in developing management skills by taking students’ perceptions before and after the use of the simulation.

Research methodology (Contd.) Scale: 5-point Likert scale, 1 standing for minimum

and 5 standing for maximum.

Variables: dependent variable: perception of simulation’s effectiveness

Independent variable: utilization of simulation

Control variables : previous business industry (CV1), educational background (CV2), gender (CV3) and ethics course (CV4)

Method

Quantitative descriptive analysis and regression analyses/ANOVA for inferential purposes

Preliminary results

Before: some students tends to have no or mildopinions while others have very deep beliefs regardingethics

After: number of students at 3 level has diminishedsignificantly whereas number of students at 2 or 4 level has increased (students with strong opinions before remains or increases).

Going through the simulation seems to raise ethicalawareness.

Forthcoming Perform deeper analysis including questions on strategy

and team behavior

Repeat the study with more control variables (incl. ability to track student profile and teams)

Implications: use of simulation at beginning or end of program create different dynamics of learning of soft and hard management skills.

Students with science background perceive a greaterlearning in soft skills whereas students with a social science background perceive more hard skills development.

Thank you! Welcome to your suggestions…

Contact

Serge Poisson-de HaroAssistant Professor in Strategic Management

HEC Montréal

serge.poissondeharo@hec.ca

www.hec.ca

THANK YOU FOR YOUR ATTENTION.