Incompetency and Competency Training by Arch Woodside Rouxelle de Villiers & Roger Marshall

Author:Arch Woodside, Rouxelle de Villiers & Roger Marshall
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Springer International Publishing, Cham

Pre-test

To enhance ecological validity and verisimilitude, the in-basket simulations were pre-tested with MBA students and marketing and management practitioners currently employed in the roles and functions portrayed in the in-basket simulations. (Note: these MBA students did not participant in the laboratory experiments.) Two types of pre-tests were done: (1) a time-controlled pre-test with current MBA students and (2) an off-site, self-timed, uncontrolled, self-administered test completed by practitioners. After the time-controlled pre-test, participating MBA students completed the demographic section of the survey and the participants were debriefed. The debriefing focused particularly on: (1) the simplicity and comprehensibility of the instructions; (2) realistic time allowance (to complete the reading, study the decision aids, consider an opinion and complete the decision forms); (3) verisimilitude or realism of the simulations; (4) complexity and relative comprehensiveness of the provided information; (5) the presence of escalating decisions from lower order to higher order decision-making activities; and (6) motivation and enthusiasm to complete all sections of the written questions and (7) practicality of procedural issues.

To deliberately avoid favouring one of the contending alternative theories (Woodside, 2011a, b) contained in the multiple choice answers, all data collection forms, in particular the sections with alternative answers, were designed and tested with research experts. In line with the suggestion by Woodside (2011a, b, p. 247) “to achieve bias reduction of questioning” …independent experts checked the decision alternatives (multiple-choice answers) as well as the sequence of answers in the questionnaire. In addition, “to allow for objectivity and verifiability in the data collection and analysis, the actual survey forms used to collect data is available for independent examination” (Woodside, 2011a, b, p. 247).

The initial in-basket simulations were subjected to a series of pre-tests with practitioners and scholars in the field and revised. The pre-tests revealed that changes were required to word-choice in order to clarify instructions, The question sequence was changed and formatting issues such as structure and lay-out of multiple choice answers and the 4-point Likert scales were resolved (Cox, 1980; Likert, 1932. A few minor changes were made to the actual simulation descriptions. The time allocated for self-study and case reading (both the competency and incompetency training materials); analysis; group discussions; and recording of decisions were tested and adapted. For example, the time allowed for self-study was lengthened from 15 min to 20 min; the time allowed to record decisions was reduced from 7 min to 5 min. Pre-tests established that individuals responding to the four in-basket simulations took less than an hour and thus half the time of configurations of conditions where group interactive decisions are required. It was determined that all participants in the pre-test interventions could quite comfortably complete the full experiment within the allotted time of 2 h.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.