Presentation given by Serge Poisson - de Haro, HEC Montreal

1. Serge Poisson - de Haro
Experiential Learning Congress
ESMT Berlin
25-26 November 2010

2. 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?

3. 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?

4. 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)

5. 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)

6. 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

7. 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 functional
areas of business
 Conceptual skills: ability of problem solving

8. 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’s
environment

9. 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…

10. Constructs
1st Management Skills
level
2nd Hard Management Skills Soft Management Skills
level
3rd Technical skills Conceptual skills Human skills Societal skills
level (H1A) (H1B) (H2A) (H2B)
4th Accounting/Finance (1Aa) Goal setting (1Ba) Helping (2Aa) Ethics (2Ba)
Production/Logistics (1Ab) Action orientation (1Bb) Leadership (2Ab) Quality of worklife (2Bb)
level Marketing/Sales (1Ac) Initiative taking (1Bc) Relationship (2Ac) Org.-env. fit (2Bc)

11. 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.

12. 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

13. Preliminary results
 Before: some students tends to have no or mild
opinions while others have very deep beliefs regarding
ethics
 After: number of students at 3 level has diminished
significantly 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 ethical
awareness.

14. 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 greater
learning in soft skills whereas students with a social science
background perceive more hard skills development.
Thank you! Welcome to your suggestions…

15. Contact
Serge Poisson-de Haro
Assistant Professor in Strategic Management
HEC Montréal
serge.poissondeharo@hec.ca
www.hec.ca
THANK YOU FOR YOUR ATTENTION.