A gaming simulation of manufacturing organisations

Igartua, JI, 1991. A gaming simulation of manufacturing organisations. MPhil, Nottingham Trent University.

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Abstract

Manufacturing organisations are inevitably divided into individual departments at some level. Each of these departments will have their own objectives and the success of the organisation depends on the extent to which these departmental objectives are in line with the overall objectives of the organisation. They must coordinate their efforts towards the objectives of the whole organisation, forgetting their departmental rivalries. Sadly this is not the case in many western manufacturing companies.

Many companies would therefore like to realign their departmental objectives and an important step in this process is to educate their staff. They must understand how their decisions affect other parts of the company and through this the overall company performance. This is inevitably a dynamic and cross functional process, as decisions are being made throughout an organisation in response to a continually changing environment.

Therefore, education can no longer be seen as a static and independent process, where people only understand how they work, and how others work in a stand-alone basis. What is needed is a new and more integrative approach, where people understand not only how they work and why, but also how they affect other areas of their manufacturing organisation, in other words how their policies and performances fit within the policies and performances of the whole organisation.

Computer games appear to be appropriate tools for that integrated educational approach. Players are not only able to experiment with technical variables, but also they are able to experience a fundamental aspect of organisational life, that of bargaining and negotiation in the decision-making process. They are faced with the inevitably interdepartmental rivalry so common in organisations, and with the conflict between this rivalry and the need to cooperate in a company basis.

Work therefore took place at Nottingham Polytechnic to develop a dynamic, multi-user, computer based gaming-simulation which was designed to highlight the interactions between departments.

Item Type:	Thesis
Creators:	Igartua, J.I.
Date:	1991
ISBN:	9781369317190
Identifiers:	Number Type PQ10183555 Other
Divisions:	Schools > Nottingham Business School
Record created by:	Jeremy Silvester
Date Added:	02 Oct 2020 11:16
Last Modified:	20 Sep 2023 10:41
URI:	https://irep.ntu.ac.uk/id/eprint/41105

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