9
ECONOMIC AND MANAGEMENT SCIENCES
Leaders can learn through play
U
WC MCom graduate, Wouter Grove, believes social online gaming can help develop leadership. “The cultural phenomenon of digital games has always fascinated me,” says Grove, “especially the power to engage people. That same engagement is often missing in traditional ‘chalk-and-talk’ training and learning.” His thesis, titled Competencies for successful use of social online simulation games within organisational leadership development, explores how social online simulation gaming (SOSG) can be employed as a learning technology that can prove particularly valuable as a leadership and skills development tool. “It’s all about the use of games within organisational training, something which has been increasing over the last few years,” he says. “This study attempted to create a managerial tool to assist managers in implementing and successfully utilising exciting new technologies.” Simulating tasks and challenges and playing through them online provides low-stakes leadership training where actions and outcomes are measurable and repeatable – but implementing these systems requires certain competencies. To determine what competencies
were necessary, Grove reviewed the literature on SOSG utilisation models and frameworks, deriving a preliminary conceptual model of the ICT-related competencies needed to successfully implement SOSG in leadership development. He then refined the framework with the input of an international panel of experts, finally ending up with an SOSG utilisation framework that could potentially form a robust basis for further refinement of required competencies. In other words, he worked out what skills might be useful for implementing SOSGs for learning development, and highlighted those that would have the most significant impact on the success of implementation - useful for both academics and practitioners. “If business leaders can successfully utilise game-based learning to maximise their return on investment in leadership development initiatives, this may not only increase business metrics, but also enable business leaders to leave a lasting legacy,” Grove says. He is currently in the early stages of a PhD on digital social innovation and runs a consultancy that assists clients to successfully implement game-based learning technologies. One of those clients is UWC – he has helped to develop an alternate reality
Wouter Grove explored the serious side of gaming for his MCom.
game for Orientation and a variety of other activities. “In ten years I would like to look back and say that I have been living a life of significance, making a real contribution to the country that I love,” says Grove. “If I can do that with games, that would be great fun.”
Digital gaming is impacting on the business world in other ways. Massively multiplayer online role-playing games (MMORPGs) allow millions of gamers to play simultaneously, and have virtual economies where people buy and sell virtual items for real world money, or sell virtual space that they’ve developed, or even sell their characters themselves. One of the biggest, World of Warcraft, has 10 million active players.
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Sense-Making Through Leadership Development