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Dear all,

This Fall I'll be teaching Strategic Management for senior undergrads, and it will be my second time teaching it according to a one-night-per-week schedule (Tues 6-8:45pm). Last time I relied strictly on lecture + discussion, but I figure that a 3-hour class period allows for richer and more detailed -- and importantly, a more continuous kind of -- experiential learning on the subject of efficient organizational form (i.e. markets vs. hierarchy vs. hybrids).

Was wondering whether anybody here has used in-class interactive exercises for undergrads (like project-based activities?) that are valuable in revealing the effectiveness of different kinds of organizational forms under different circumstances (e.g. issues of incomplete contracting vs. trust vs. fiat and shared culture, and/or Williamson's 'discriminating alignment')... I'm especially interested in what others might do or might have done specifically for 3-hour class periods (e.g. Has anybody managed to integrate all three types of organizational forms into one 3-hour experiential learning period? What about splitting up the students so that all three organizational forms are being simulated at the same time, with a full-class integrated compare-and-contrast discussion at the end? Do students find it more valuable when these in-class activities are run before the relevant lecture period, or afterwards?)

Input and thoughts appreciated!

Cheers!
-Chihmao.


-----------------------------
Chihmao Hsieh
Assistant Professor
107H Fulton Hall
Department of Business Administration
Missouri University of Science & Technology*
Rolla, MO 65401
http://www.mst.edu/~hsiehc

*(formerly known as University of Missouri-Rolla)

Chihamo,

I've been teaching in this format for a few years now and think I
stumbled upon the secret formula this past semester. The class organized
themselves into case teams and then we did a case competition at the
beginning of each class. The students would read the case before coming
to class, then they had 30-45 minutes to tackle the case
question/outcome/decision. They then had five minutes to present their
results, and we would take out first break after the presentations.

When I really got it right, the case served to illustrate the previous
week's lecture and provide a lead in to that night's lecture. For
example in week 3 I did a lecture on Porter's competitive strategies. In
week 4 the students had to identify what the best possible strategy was
for competing in an industry they read a case on. The "optimal" strategy
was the combinative strategy since no one was currently pursuing that
strategy. However, there was no additional strategy to engage in if that
strategy failed or was met with heavy competition. So what do we do
next? Week 4's lecture was on the RBV to provide the students with
another means to compete.

Hope that helps.

Sean Lux

-----Original Message-----
From: Business Policy and Strategy List
[mailto:BPS-NET@AOMLISTS.pace.edu] On Behalf Of Hsieh, Chihmao
Sent: Tuesday, June 24, 2008 10:55 PM
To: BPS-NET@AOMLISTS.pace.edu
Subject: Teaching the topic of organizational form: Experiential
in-class exercises afforded by a 3-hour Strategic Management class

Dear all,

This Fall I'll be teaching Strategic Management for senior undergrads,
and it will be my second time teaching it according to a
one-night-per-week schedule (Tues 6-8:45pm). Last time I relied
strictly on lecture + discussion, but I figure that a 3-hour class
period allows for richer and more detailed -- and importantly, a more
continuous kind of -- experiential learning on the subject of efficient
organizational form (i.e. markets vs. hierarchy vs. hybrids).

Was wondering whether anybody here has used in-class interactive
exercises for undergrads (like project-based activities?) that are
valuable in revealing the effectiveness of different kinds of
organizational forms under different circumstances (e.g. issues of
incomplete contracting vs. trust vs. fiat and shared culture, and/or
Williamson's 'discriminating alignment')... I'm especially interested in
what others might do or might have done specifically for 3-hour class
periods (e.g. Has anybody managed to integrate all three types of
organizational forms into one 3-hour experiential learning period? What
about splitting up the students so that all three organizational forms
are being simulated at the same time, with a full-class integrated
compare-and-contrast discussion at the end? Do students find it more
valuable when these in-class activities are run before the relevant
lecture period, or afterwards?)

Input and thoughts appreciated!

Cheers!
-Chihmao.


-----------------------------
Chihmao Hsieh
Assistant Professor
107H Fulton Hall
Department of Business Administration
Missouri University of Science & Technology*
Rolla, MO 65401
http://www.mst.edu/~hsiehc

*(formerly known as University of Missouri-Rolla)

Hi,

I also teach a 3 hour strategy classes and have very successfully
employed an experiential teaching approach (which I label
competency-based or hands-on learning) for a number of years. One
exercise I had used with great success to teach the fundamentals of the
RBV is PaperScape. It also works well as a teambuilding exercise and has
been published in Journal of Management Education. It takes 40-50 min.

UNDERSTANDING HOW RESOURCES AND CAPABILITIES AFFECT PERFORMANCE:
ACTIVELY APPLYING THE RESOURCE-BASED VIEW IN THE CLASSROOM
Norman T Sheehan. Journal of Management Education. Thousand Oaks: Jun
2006. Vol. 30, Iss. 3; p. 421

If you want to teach strategy implementation, I recommend Simons' Levers
of Control. I have published a short in-class case, The Coffee Pot,
which illustrates how to apply the Levers to a small business. It can be
taught in 45-60 min depending on the length of the discussion. The
Coffee Pot case can be found in the Journal of Accounting Education.

The Coffee Pot. Norman T Sheehan. Journal of Accounting Education.
Harrisonburg: 2007. Vol. 25, Iss. 4; pg. 193

I have also used Greg Dess's Plastico role play with great success to
illustrate challenges in implementing strategy. You will need to contact
Greg directly for this. He presented it at the Academy last year, so he
is willing to share this great resource.

A great resource for illustrating the importance of Corporate
Governance, risk management, and the ethical role of boards is Booth
Pharmaceuticals. I found students had little interest in this topic, but
this year I used this role play which piqued their interest and
learning. This role play was adapted by Dr. J. Kay Keels of Coastal U.
She presented it at the Academy last year. You will need to contact her
directly. jkeels@coastal.edu.

Cheers,

Norman



-----Original Message-----
From: Business Policy and Strategy List
[mailto:BPS-NET@AOMLISTS.pace.edu] On Behalf Of Hsieh, Chihmao
Sent: Tuesday, June 24, 2008 8:55 PM
To: BPS-NET@AOMLISTS.pace.edu
Subject: Teaching the topic of organizational form: Experiential
in-class exercises afforded by a 3-hour Strategic Management class

Dear all,

This Fall I'll be teaching Strategic Management for senior undergrads,
and it will be my second time teaching it according to a
one-night-per-week schedule (Tues 6-8:45pm). Last time I relied
strictly on lecture + discussion, but I figure that a 3-hour class
period allows for richer and more detailed -- and importantly, a more
continuous kind of -- experiential learning on the subject of efficient
organizational form (i.e. markets vs. hierarchy vs. hybrids).

Was wondering whether anybody here has used in-class interactive
exercises for undergrads (like project-based activities?) that are
valuable in revealing the effectiveness of different kinds of
organizational forms under different circumstances (e.g. issues of
incomplete contracting vs. trust vs. fiat and shared culture, and/or
Williamson's 'discriminating alignment')... I'm especially interested in
what others might do or might have done specifically for 3-hour class
periods (e.g. Has anybody managed to integrate all three types of
organizational forms into one 3-hour experiential learning period? What
about splitting up the students so that all three organizational forms
are being simulated at the same time, with a full-class integrated
compare-and-contrast discussion at the end? Do students find it more
valuable when these in-class activities are run before the relevant
lecture period, or afterwards?)

Input and thoughts appreciated!

Cheers!
-Chihmao.


-----------------------------
Chihmao Hsieh
Assistant Professor
107H Fulton Hall
Department of Business Administration
Missouri University of Science & Technology*
Rolla, MO 65401
http://www.mst.edu/~hsiehc

*(formerly known as University of Missouri-Rolla)