The impact of experiential learning on managers’ strategic competencies and decision style

• Autor(a) principal: Torres, Pedro
• Data de Publicação: 2017
• Outros Autores: Augusto, Mário
• Tipo de documento: Artigo
• Idioma: eng
• Título da fonte: Repositório Científico de Acesso Aberto de Portugal (Repositórios Cientìficos)
• Texto Completo: http://hdl.handle.net/10316/108261; https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jik.2016.06.001
• topic: Decision-making styles; Strategic competencies; Experiential learning; Simulation-based method; Estilos de toma de decisiones; Competencias estratégicas; Aprendizaje experimental; Método basado en la simulación

This research studies whether Executive MBA student’s participation in a business strategysimulation course significantly impacts on self-perceptions of their strategic competenciesand decision style, which involves crossing psychological and strategy fields, and aims tocontribute to the development of theoretical management and educational insights. Theobtained results on students’ self-perception of their improvement on strategic competen-cies suggest that the simulation has a positive value for students and contributes both totheir engagement in the MBA program and to their knowledge. However, decision-makingstyles do not change as a result of the simulation, with the exception of the analyticalcomponent, which is reinforced. Thus, we concluded that although students’ knowledgeand strategic competencies could be expanded with a business strategy simulation, theirdecision-making style is not significantly influenced by practice. Consequently, we suggestthat it is possible to antecipate one reaction to a future situation, when managers’ decision-making style is known in advance, which in turn validates the statement that “nothing is sotheoretical as good practice”.