THE ORGANIZATION SIMULATION
(Developed and © by Lee Bolman and Terry Deal)
The organization simulation is a temporary system
established to promote learning, particularly about topics of
structure, people and power in organizations.
Each participant will be a member of either:
(a) one of the three levels in an management consulting firm, Management Resources Corporation (MRC)
or
(b) Public Administrators' Benevolent League (PABL)
You will receive a briefing sheet appropriate to your organizational membership.
The Faculty
The faculty member will be a traveling anthropologist.
He is free to move about the system to study the process.
He will not intervene or participate in the simulation until its
conclusion.
THE SIMULATION WILL LAST FOR ONE HOUR. THE END WILL BE ANNOUNCED BY THE FACULTY.
Briefing Sheet
MANAGEMENT RESOURCES CORPORATION (MRC)
Top Group
1. Members of the top group are viewed as having overall
responsibility for MRC'S business success and for
promoting the welfare and learning of all participants.
2. In keeping with their responsibilities, the top group is also entrusted with control of the corporate treasury.
3. The Top Group is responsible for negotiating with
Customers for sale of MRC's service. MRC's only current
service is developing management slogans. In order to provide a fair
return to MRC and its employees, you want
to sell at a price no less than $6/slogan. You have no current
customers, but you hope to negotiate a contract with
the Public Administrators' Benevolent League. You have heard that PABL
is looking for a vendor to provide
slogans that will help build public support for the public management
profession.
4. Top management negotiates the slogan specifications
with the Customers, and communicates those
specifications to the Middle Group. The Middles are responsible for
organizing the production workers to
create the slogans.
5. It is a policy that the members of the top group are
considered invited guests who are always welcome in the
spaces of each of the other two groups. Members of the top group may
communicate with members of the other
groups at any time.
6. It is also a tradition that members of the top group
are the guardians and interpreters of MRC's traditions, rules
and policies, including wage and salary policies. In that capacity, they
may change or re-interpret any customs or
rules at any time.
Middle Group
1. Historically, the role of the middle group is to work
with the top group to set performance goals and
specifications, and to organize and manage the workers in production of
slogans.
2. It is an MRC policy that members of the middle group
never enter the space of the top group, nor communicate
with the top group, unless they have received the invitation or
permission of the top group. It is viewed as
permissible for members of the middle group to knock on the door of the
top group, and request an audience.
3. Members of the middle group have always been free to
enter the space of the bottom group and to communicate
with members of the bottom group at any time.
4. Each member of the middle group has been assigned to
one of the work teams in the bottom group.
Bottom Group
1. Members of the bottom group are expected to perform
the basic work of the organization: producing
management slogans, and learning about structure, people, and power in
organizations.
2. Members of the bottom group remain in their own
designated space unless they receive permission from
members of the Middle or Top groups to go elsewhere. Bottom group
members may knock on the door of the
middle group, and request an audience with that group. It would be
considered a serious violation of custom for
any member of the bottom group to attempt to communicate with the top
group, unless first invited to do so by
the Top Group.
3. Each member of the bottom group is assigned to a work
team. Members of a team work together in the
production of management slogans, under the direction of their middle
group supervisor(s).
Briefing Sheet
PUBLIC ADMINISTRATORS' BENEVOLENT LEAGUE (PABL)
You are the professional staff of the Public
Administrators' Benevolent League. PABL is a voluntary association
of professional public managers formed to promote the public management
profession and to build support for
public managers. Responding to widespread evidence of a decline in
public support for the profession of public
administration, PABL wishes to develop a public education program to
enhance such support. Central to the
campaign will be slogans that will catch public attention and remind
citizens of the importance of management.
Your group's task is to purchase management slogans that
meet the specifications outlined below, using funds
from a grant awarded to PABL by the Public Management Power Foundation
(PMPF). You are not permitted
to produce slogans yourselves, but you may purchase from any qualified
vendor. Currently, the only known vendor
is Management Resources Corporation (MRC). For each slogan that you
successfully purchase, you will be paid a
commission that can be used as salaries for your staff. Your commission
varies with the price you pay for slogans,
as shown in the following table:
|
Price per slogan |
Commission |
|
$1.00 - $3.00 |
$1.00 |
|
$3.00 - $6.00 |
$0.50 |
|
$6.00 - $8.00 |
$0.25 |
|
over $8.00 |
$0.00 |
Your compensation is paid separately, not from the grant
that you receive at the beginning of the simulation.
Be sure to keep a record of your purchases. Any money from the grant
that you don't spend to buy slogans
will revert to the professor.
Slogans must meet three criteria:
1. They must be consistent with PABL's basic themes:
public management is central and vital to our nation's
survival and quality of life; public managers shape our nation's future;
money spent on management development
is not an expense but an investment that will be returned many times
over; public administrators are dedicated
and creative professionals who deserve to be compensated accordingly.
2. Slogans should be simple and brief, yet powerful.
(PABL is concerned that jargon and wordiness might turn
off the public.)
3. They should be original, creative and well-written.
(In all probability public supporters for public management
at this point in time is likely to not very much be facilitated by
slogans that are old fashions, dull and/or boring,
mispelled and/or not as good grammarwise.)
ROSTER FOR ORGANIZATION SIMULATION
MANAGEMENT RESOURCES CORPORATION
TOP GROUP:
ALDREDO FETTUCINI
PUTTANESCA PASTA
ETC.
Middle Group:
O. Veal (Team A)
W. Boeuf (Team B)
etc.
Bottom Group:
Team A: Bacon, Lettuce, Tomato
etc.
Public Administrators' Benevolent League
Suzette Crepes, Melba Peche, etc.
--------------------------------------------------------------
m.r.c.
Executive Offices
--------------------------------------
M. R. C.
Middle Management Offices
--------------------------------------
Team A
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Team B
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Team C
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Public
Administrators'
Benevolent
League