Experimentation in learning organizations: A management flight simulator approach

Managers' real-life experiences will need to be supported by new learning tools, as external environments and internal dynamics of organizations become more complex. This need for simulated managerial experience has come from a trend towards fewer hierarchical levels in organizations. Managerial competency that was once achieved by progressing through the many layers needs to be obtained through other means. This article shows how management flight simulators can enhance learning by allowing managers to compress time and space, experiment with various strategies, and learn from simulated deployments by reflecting on the outcomes. We focus on three aspects of the use of such simulators: 1) the design of a generic learning process — learning laboratories — to address service quality management issues in a variety of industrial settings; 2) how dimensions of this learning can be operationalized and measured; and 3) an experimental study that shows the transfer aspect of learning and how different learning strategies affect the way in which participants transfer learning across domains.