Бизнес-симуляциялар және оқу үдерісіндегі қолданысы

Simulation used for business activities
simulations for business training

Business simulation or corporate simulation is simulation used for business training, education or analysis. It can be scenario based or numeric based. Most business simulations are used for business acumen training and development. Learning objectives include: strategic thinking, decision making, problem solving, financial analysis, market analysis, operations, teamwork and leadership. The business gaming community seems lately to have adopted the term business simulation game instead of just gaming or just simulation. The word simulation is sometimes considered too mechanistic for educational purposes. Simulation also refers to activities where an optimum for some problem is searched for, while this is not usually the aim of an educational game. On the other hand, the word game can imply time wasting, not taking things too seriously and engaging in an exercise designed purely for fun. The concept of simulation gaming seems to offer the right combination and balance between the two. Simulation gaming is also the term that the educational gaming community has adopted.

In a business game or business simulation game, a scenario is played out in a simulated environment and the learner or user is asked to make individual or team based decisions on how to act in the simulations. Often multiple choice alternatives are used and the scenario is played out following a branching tree based on which decisions the learner makes. Throughout or at certain intervals feedback is provided. These are similar to role play simulations.

As interest in conscious business (or responsible management) and sustainable business has grown, business simulation creators have responded. In 2009, Dr. Raj Sisodia of Conscious Capitalism, Inc. and Dr. Ernest Cadotte of Marketplace Simulations began work to create the first cross functional responsible management simulation on the market. The Conscious Capitalism Bikes simulation by Marketplace Simulations was launched in 2011, allowing students to build a cross functional bicycle company while managing their impact on the environment, community health, employee morale, customer safety, and their company reputation. Since then, responsible management business simulations have grown in number, with Celemi, Cesim, Edumundo, Hubro, Inchainge, Interpretive Simulations, and others all creating their own responsible management or sustainable business simulations.

A numeric simulation can mimic a whole company on a high level or it can be more detailed and mimic specific organizational units or processes. In a numeric simulation the learner or user makes decisions by pulling levers and dialers as well as through inputting numbers. The decisions are processed and the outcomes are calculated and shown in reports and graphs, e. g. price and volume as well as number of employees can be decisions and the outcome can be viewed in e. g. an income statement, a balance sheet and a cash flow statement. Feedback is given throughout the simulation or at certain intervals, such as when a year has passed. Many numeric business simulations include elements of competition against other participants or against computer generated competitors.

Instructors may vary in how much introduction they give to a business simulation game. The level of preliminary instruction given may also vary depending on the complexity of the simulation. Business simulations may be played by individuals or by teams. Increasing team size allows for practical lessons in leadership and collaboration and students delegate responsibilities, interpret data, and make decisions. Research indicates that team performance rises with each additional member until the team reaches five members.

The group discussion phase is usually called debriefing. Debriefing is the most important part of the simulation/gaming experience. We all learn from experience, but without reflecting on this experience the learning potential may be lost. Simulation gaming needs to be seen as contrived experiences in the learning cycle, which require special attention at the stages of reflection and generalization. lists six phases of debriefing, presented as a flexible suggestion and not as rigid requirements:
How do you feel? Gives the participants an opportunity to get some of their strong feelings about the simulation game off their chest. What happened? Makes it possible for the participants to compare and to contrast participant recollections and to draw some general conclusions during the next phase. What did you learn? Encourage the generation and testing of different hypotheses. Ask the participants to come up with general principles based on their experiences from the game and to offer evidence to support or to reject the principles. How does this relate to the real world? Encourage a discussion of the relevance of the game to the participants' real world workplace. What if ? Encourage the participants to apply their insights to new contexts. What next? Participants use their insights to come up with strategies for the simulation game and for the workplace. Depending on the length of the simulation, debriefing may take place after each decision round in addition to a final debrief after the game's conclusion. Cadotte and MacGuire recommend a series of activities to be overlaid on a business simulation to enhance the learning experience. These recommendations include:

Executive Briefings: Each decision round, the instructor talks with individual teams as a business coach. The instructor's role is to challenge the students' thinking and analysis by looking for inconsistencies and holes in the logic, incompatibilities across functions, and other issues. Comprehensive Business Plan: Midway through longer simulations, students prepare a business plan and present it to a group of independent judges recruited from the business community and school. Students must develop a formal strategy and work through the tactical details and cash flow requirements to execute it. Stockholder Report: At the end of the simulation, students give a final stockholder report, accounting for their actions and performance in the periods since the business plan was initially presented. Longitudinal Assessment of Learning: Students are judged on a rubric measuring their depth of understanding, breadth of understanding, and management by the numbers. This also has the benefit of meeting Assurance of Learning accreditation requirements. Van Ments notes that the aim of debriefing is to: deal with factual errors and to tie up loose ends (including scoring); draw out general conclusions about the session; and deduce general lessons which can be extrapolated to the real world. Furthermore, the participants should not be allowed to conclude what was learned without receiving feedback (Gentry, 1990). The participants need to articulate their perception of what was learned, and the instructor needs to put things into a broader perspective. Gentry also expresses that process feedback is much more valuable than outcome feedback. As games are less than perfect representations of the real world, it should be the decision process used that needs to be applauded or critiqued, not the gaming outcome. The importance of reflection, debriefing and feedback highlight the need for business simulations to supported by carefully considered learning outcomes, pedagogy and assessment tasks. Student factors such as low motivation to engage and prior skill weaknesses can undermine the ability of authentic assessment regimes to achieve the purported learning benefits. The Online Business Simulations Project funded by the Australian Government Office for Learning and Teaching has developed a range of resources to help educators embed simulations into their classes.

A study in the Journal of Business Research used a Marketplace Simulations game to explore the role of cognitive processes in team decision making within the context of marketing. The paper addressed a gap in existing literature by considering not only behavioral and cultural aspects but also the cognitive aspects of information processing in teams. The team gathered data from eight MBA programs across the United States that used Marketplace Simulations in their class. The final study included 823 participants, representing 179 MBA teams. After the fourth decision round in the simulation, students were told to create a detailed business plan for the remaining four decision rounds. They were then given an assessment to measure their perceptions of the market, the symmetry of the team's awareness, team tactical agreement, and team performance. Researchers controlled for how many years of real world work experience each team member had, as well as how much time each one had spent in the simulation. The study's results showed that when a management team can perceive, understand, and predict market factors (team market awareness), the company tends to perform better. This effect is even stronger when awareness among team members is uneven, with some having a better grasp of certain market elements. Additionally, when team members agree on how to approach different aspects of marketing, the impact of team market awareness on performance is even greater.