Review by: Da Rin, Denise (2006-04-06)

This paper focuses on the effectiveness of management simulations (MS). Therefore a field study was conducted at six venues for 138 managers. Factor analysis gener-ated 5 factors of simulation effectiveness (SimE), namely, strategy, markets, leader-ship, competencies and focus. Additionally the locus of control construct was tested for its ability to help the MS participants to learn. Locus of control (LoC) is a socially learned behavior that deals with how the individual attributes causes to behaviors and events that occur in their lives or are experienced by them. Those who believe that such events are within their control are called Internals. The others believe that external factors determine what happens to them, and attribute such events to luck, chance and fate; they are called Externals. Research has suggested that Internals contribute more to effectiveness in organizational roles than Externals because they adopt innovations quicker.

The author (a software-based simulation designer and trainer in management) analy-ses how management simulation benefits its participants, and identifies those bene-fits in the form of five simulation effectiveness factors. The outcome of this study is not outstanding as it shows that small learning groups will benefit more than larger ones, externals will learn more than Internals, and high self-confidence levels of the participants may imped their ability to learn or to acknowledge their learning.

Nevertheless the publication deals with a significant problem and although the author uses an interesting and creative approach it is not always exactly comprehensible if the underlying concepts are appropriate for the examination of the studies purpose. Additionally one can criticise among other things that the word 'effectiveness' is not defined at all, there are some failings in the questionnaire and finally the study ne-glects that learning is a process and not a single action. The author himselfs then acknowledges some weaknesses of the study and suggests that future research must use homogenous samples with data from the same organization or industry and admits that the LoC scale was ineffectual in determining any significant correlation with the simulation effectiveness factors. Despite the mentioned methodological failures the article may be interesting for a mixed audience who is interested in management simulations. As the author states, management simulation provides many opportunities for andragogy, because adult learning is most effective when the adult learners are involved in the learning experience, and are not merely passive recipient of information.