In his article “Business simulations improve business decision making”, Robert Brodo (2015) intends to articulate the advantages that participating in business simulation workshops can bring to company owners and their employees. The author argues that business simulations may be the best method to improve the decision-making process compared to other teaching approaches as the former provides experiences close to real life. According to Brodo (2015), such workshops help to enhance people’s forecasting and strategic skills, improve customer targeting approach, reduce costs and effectively measure performance. However, although the author’s arguments are intuitively trustworthy and acceptable, they are still not powerful enough, especially when read critically.
The main flaw of the article, in my opinion, is that it lacks scientifically-based evidence that would make Brodo’s arguments more persuasive. Despite claiming that business simulation is better than other teaching approaches, the author consequently talks about the advantages of the former beyond this perspective. For instance, it is stated that many organizations struggle to match the values of their products with the right customers. However, there is no evidence that business simulations can actually help companies solve this problem more efficiently than, for example, short-term or long-term educational courses. Therefore, the readers are not clear why simulations are better than other teaching methods. Moreover, there is no academic study that Brodo refers to that would support his claims about benefits that those who participate business simulation workshops.
On the contrary, if the author would include some academic studies to prove one’s position, his arguments would have a more powerful effect. For instance, in support of Brodo’s position, Farashahi & Tajeddin (2018) found that business simulation is the best method for developing interpersonal skills and self-awareness compared to case studies and lectures. In a similar vein, Mustata et al. (2017) discovered that simulations can effectively enhance an individual’s management competencies such as decision-making, proactive thinking, argumentation, creativity, conflict management and so on.
In summary, this paper intended to provide a short assessment of the article written by Brodo (2015). It is argued that the author’s argument lacks persuasive power as no references that would prove Brodo’s opinion were presented. First of all, the writer claims at the beginning of the article that business simulation is a better approach for teaching than other methods, but he fails to provide evidence-based comparisons. Secondly, Brodo also does not show any studies to quantitatively or qualitatively support his assertions.
References
Brodo, R. (2015). Business simulations improve business decision making. Advantexe. Web.
Farashahi, M., & Tajeddin, M. (2018). Effectiveness of teaching methods in business education: A comparison study on the learning outcomes of lectures, case studies and simulations. The International Journal of Management Education, 16(1), 131-142.
Mustata, I. C., Alexe, C. G., & Alexe, C. M. (2017). Developing competencies with the general management II business simulation game. International Journal of Simulation Modelling, 16(3), 412-421.