Sandra Morgan

The power of organizational storytelling: a management development perspective

Storytelling is a powerful tool that evokes visual images and heightened emotions. Business leaders who can tell a good story have tremendous impact. Presents a model and examples of organizational storytelling, discusses the use of stories in management development, and outlines ways to enhance managers’ storytelling skills.

Using Stories to Reframe the Social Construction of Reality: A Trio of Activities:

This article first presents the theoretical grounding for both storytelling and the social construction of reality. A sequence of classroom-tested tools for combining stories with reality construction is then described. Two tools for framing reality are offered: One is an actual frame that students take out of the classroom to frame a scene in different ways; the other requires students to frame two different segments of a photographic advertisement. In both exercises, students tell (either orally or in writing) the two different stories (perceptions of reality) they discovered. The third activity involves requiring students to gather stories and then retell them to classmates from the original story-teller’s perspective thus experiencing the reality of the original teller as well as discovering what their storytelling partner heard. The article concludes with a discussion of student responses.

Ready-to-use simulation

Business students are typically introduced to the concept of process management in their introductory course on operations management. A very important learning outcome here is an appreciation that the management of processes is a key to the management of quality. Some of the related concepts are qualitative, such as strategic and behavioral issues, whereas others are quantitative, such as statistical process control (SPC). Students often fail to interlink the qualitative and quantitative concepts. SPC, in particular, tends to be one of the most challenging topics for students. This exercise allows students to intuitively experience the underpinnings of SPC, embedded within the broader context of managing processes for quality. Once students become familiar with terms such as process variability, process control, and process capability, they are less daunted by SPC and become more appreciative of the number crunching that SPC entails.

PUZZLED? A Hierarchical-Group, Problem-Solving Simulation

This puzzle-building activity, originally created by one of the authors, was designed for supervisory training in amusement park settings. Both authors have used it in management classes, as participants experience the difficulties in giving clear task instructions and feedback in a structured, hierarchical setting. The exercise is based on role-play triads composed of an employee, a supervisor, and a manager, i.e., three levels of hierarchy. The blindfolded employee attempts to complete a simple jigsaw puzzle with limited communication from the supervisor and manager. In the debriefing, the facilitator may raise any number of theories to help participants understand the experience itself, and, through structured debriefing, carry lessons learned into their work life. Theories include leadership style, verbal and non-verbal communication, listening skills, feedback, motivation, problem-solving, collaboration and power dynamics. This activity temporarily places participants in different social roles. Thus it is ideally suited for multi-cultural groups or different departments or groups within the same organization.

Unreliability in Student Evaluation of Teaching Questionnaires: Focus Groups as an Alternative Approach

The conventional method used to measure teaching effectiveness is the student evaluation of teaching questionnaire (SET). Research on the validity and reliability of SETs is vast, though riddled with inconsistencies. The many “myths” of SETs are investigated and the incongruities are demonstrated. We hypothesize that the discrepancies in empirical studies come from misunderstanding and inappropriate actions by students. To address the complexity inherent in these problems, we suggest the use of focus groups as an alternative approach or complement to the standard SETs. A recommended format and guidelines for running classroom focus groups are provided. Institutional constraints and implementation concerns are addressed as well. This article lays the foundation for implementing a change in student assessment of teaching by proposing a method to compensate for bias in SETs, using focus groups as an evaluation tool, either as a stand-alone process or as a supplement to current methods.

The Power of Process Improvement

Over the last several decades many systematic management approaches, such as Total Quality Management, aimed at improving organizational performance and employee satisfaction have captured organizations’attention. Given their origins in statistics, operations management, and engineering, many of the concepts and techniques are technical. When first introduced to these methods, students become lost in their complexity and lose interest. This exercise was designed to provide students a simple way to experience firsthand the power of process improvement so that, once their interest was stimulated, they would explore advanced methods.

Association News &Notes

Because this issue will probably reach most of the readers before our 2002 meeting in Pensacola (20-22 March), I will outline some of the exciting events we have planned. First, our keynote speaker is Ken Ford of the University of West Florida’s Institute for Machine and Human Cognition. He will be sharing with us the mission and focus of the institute, which is researching ways to leverage and extend human capacities through computers. He also will present information on concept maps and explain the OZ cockpit display, an innovation that enables pilots to perceive in a 10th of a second all the information that normally is displayed on myriad cockpit gauges. We will visit the Naval Aviation Museum at the Pensacola Naval Air Station, where we can stand on the deck of an aircraft carrier, view aircraft from the days of the barnstormers, and attend an IMAX show. The papers and interactive sessions sound exciting: We have a wide range of submissions from several continents. Included are new experiential exercises, simulations, research on assessment of effectiveness, and of course, intriguing sessions from the SUNY-Geneseo team. We will also have a panel organized by Joe Wolfe that focuses on the classics. A team of eight ABSELians was created at last year’s meeting. After researching “classic” articles on gaming, team members Al Burns, Tony Faria, and Dee Page will present the results of their labors, which focused on articles published in the Journal of Marketing, Journal of Marketing Research, and Journal of Management Education. The ABSEL board is very pleased to report that Bill Biggs and Monique Forte have made excellent strides in increasing the visibility of ABSEL, recruiting new (and renewing previous) members, and in exploring partnerships with various companies and organizations. We will report on their successes at the Pensacola meeting. Also, thanks in advance to the core team that put together the Pensacola meeting:

Expecting the Unexpected: Coping Skills for Dealing with Unexpected Classroom Situations

Every experienced management instructor has faced unexpected circumstances that precipitate a quick preparation for a class session in an ongoing course. Issues of being unprepared are put in context of both the instructors personal feelings and the particular course and students. The article focuses on design skills and solutions that have worked for the author and her colleagues. Seven design criteria for quickly prepared sessions (QPS) are presented and practical examples given for a variety of class situations. The strategies can be kept on hand for when a QPS arises or used as part of overall class planning.