GREMEX - A Management Game for the New Public Administration

This is a critique of a new management game being used in the federal government-Goddard Research Engineering Management Exercise (GREMEX). The exercise involves teams of players who act as managers of a research and development project-the orbiting optical observatory-of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration. During this exercise a computer and the referee-instructor together provide the realistic environment within which the team participants make their decisions affecting the course of the project. The article discusses the place of GREMEX in a tradition of games and simulations, and notes the similarities and differences between GREMEX and other management games currently in use for business training. Some of the actual decisions being made by the GREMEX teams are described to illustrate the nature of the exercise. Finally, GREMEX is evaluated in terms of its particular relevance to public administration and the research and teaching possibilities which derive from such a management game.