Strategic Choices

Developments in Business Simulation & Experiential Exercises, Volume 15, 1988
STRATEGY DESIGN, PROCESS AND IMPLEMENTATION IN A STABLE/COMPLEX ENVIRONMENT: AN EXPLORATORY STUDY Jerry Gosenpud, University of Wisconsin-Whitewater Joseph Wolfe, University of Tulsa ABSTRACT The purpose of this exploratory research was to study the decision making environment of the simulation, more specifically, strategies and organizational processes of simulation teams and the appropriateness of these strategies and processes to the simulation's environment. A case study approach was used with four MBA teams, and structured interviews were used to gather data. It was found that teams became more structured and programmed with time and success and that the strategic decision making behavior of simulation teams paralleled that of strategic decision makers in the real world. INTRODUCTION Top management or total enterprise games are commonly used in a business school 's business policy or strategic management course (15; 28; 30). In a historical sense these games have been used to implement the original intentions of the business policy course -- to demonstrate and provide practice in the dynamic integration of the diverse functional skills and orientations provided in prior course work (13). As the course has evolved into a free-standing discipline with its own research traditions and expanding literature base, business games and large scale simulations also serve to provide students with vicarious insight into the world of the strategic decision making process (3; 6; 11; 19; 23; 31). If a business game is employed to draw insights, lessons and conclusions regarding the nature of the strategic decision making process and the world of that decision maker, it is important for the environment created by the game (as well as the response by the students to that environment) to basically emulate the real-world environment of the strategic decision maker. A question exists, however, regarding...