Fostering adult learning in strategic management thinking and intent facilitated through total enterprise computer simulations

There are many who believe that adult learning has been altered as a result of the immersion of adult learners into a digital environment. This quasi-experimental case study research, using a newly developed measurement instrument, executed an analysis of quantifiable and qualitative data to assess whether strategic management thinking/intent was accentuated through integration of a total enterprise computer simulation in the adult learning experience. The methodology included: (1) the pre-study development of a strategic management assessment instrument to quantify levels of a strategic orientation; (2) multiple administrations of this assessment to experimental groups of subjects as a pre-test at the onset of a management development curriculum; (3) the introduction of a total enterprise computer simulation to experimental groups accompanied by observations of group decision-making sessions; (4) the administration of a standard management development program emphasizing the case study educational methodology to a control group; (5) the administration of an amended SMAI assessment post-test to ascertain differences in a strategic thinking orientation; and (6) Fifteen follow-up, in-depth, personal interviews. The post-test data suggest that those subjects exposed to a total enterprise simulation register higher levels of a strategic management orientation/intent as measured by the assessment instrument developed specifically for this purpose.