Using Role-plays to Acquire Process-oriented Knowledge in Enterprises

Process-oriented enterprises are expected to be more successful than traditional functional-oriented ones. Consequently, more and more companies want to become process-oriented. But to reach this goal a basic change of mind towards more process-oriented thinking of a company’s employees is required. Therefore, the adequate support of employees to acquire process-oriented knowledge is crucial for organisations. Unfortunately, the necessary knowledge is tacit knowledge which is not easy to acquire. While formal learning or training programs deliver explicit knowledge and skills, it is much more challenging to generate implicit or tacit knowledge out of everyday work activities. In order to help employees to acquire and apply tacit knowledge, a role-play based simulation program, named KreditSim, has been developed. This kind of simulation allows for a learning environment closely related to the actual workplace. The case of KreditSim shows how this coaching method actively involves employees and improves awareness of process-oriented thinking. The participants gain the necessary process-oriented knowledge by a guided improvement of a given functional-oriented process with deficiencies.