Development of a Computerized In-Basket Exercise for the Classroom: A Sales Management Example

Abstract

This article follows the development of a sales management in-basket exercise for use in the classroom. The authors have computerized the exercise and added features to allow for additional and more quantitative input from the students. The exercise has evolved and been tested in numerous classroom situations. The computerized in-basket exercise is shown to provide significant benefits over regular in-baskets when measured against the objectives of the exercise. These benefits include quantitative, immediate, and consistent feedback to students as well as spirited discussions in the classroom as to the role and actions of sales managers.

Executive Attention: An Alternative Perspective on General Mental Ability, Performance, and Subgroup Differences

“…Procedures were essentially identical to Study 1. Criteria included a managerial simulation exercise (Pearson, Barnes, & Onken, ); further, participants were provided with university‐addressed, stamped‐envelopes to be delivered to their immediate supervisors containing Williams and Anderson's () in‐role performance scale. Immediate supervisors were asked to complete the scale, and return the envelope to the researchers via U.S. mail.…”

“…Participants completed a managerial simulation exercise (Pearson et al., ) in which 20 daily tasks were presented (e.g., 8:00 meeting: financial reps . ; Message: Ted Wilson “new insurance ”).…”

“…The graphical user interface for the exercise was developed by the authors in Microsoft Visual Basic and allowed participants to select task items, one at a time, and move them up or down in the list until the desired priority order was reached. Performance was operationalized as error rate—the summed absolute differences between participants’ and subject matter experts’ rank values for each item (Pearson et al., ); however, for our analyses, these data were reverse scored for ease of interpretation. We observed split‐half reliability with Spearman‐Brown correction of r = .66.…”

Gazelle, Lion, Hyena, Vulture, and Worm: A Teaching Metaphor on Competition Between Early and Late Market Entrants

“…As shown in Tables 1 and 2, the "aha" response takes some time to develop. Following the lesson, students completed a short 13-item survey adapted from Pearson, Barnes, and Onken (2006). Using a Likert-type scale (1 = strongly disagree; 7 = strongly agree), students reported, for instance, that the FCL helped them recognize the complexity of competition (mean = 6.09), understand how to describe competitors within an industry (mean = 5.69), and appreciate the difference between successful and unsuccessful competitive strategies (mean = 5.21) ( Table 4).…”

“…• "McDonald's is a lion company because they find new locations both foreign and domestic." Source: Scale adapted from Pearson, Barnes, and Onken (2006). Note: Seven-point Likert-type scale (1 = strongly disagree; 7 = strongly agree).…”