Experimentation in Learning Organizations: a Management Flight Simulator Approach Experimentation in Learning Organizations: a Management Flight Simulator Approach Experimentation in Learning Organizations: a Management Flight Simulator Approach

Managers' real life experiences will need to be supported by new learning tools, as external environments and internal dynamics of organizations become more complex. This need for simulated managerial expenence has come from a trend towards fewer hierarchical levels m organizauons. Managerial competency that was once achieved by progressing through the many layers needs to be obtamed through other means. This article shows how management flight simulators can enhance learning by allowing managers to compress time and space, expenment with vanous strategies, and learn from simulated deployments by reflecting on the outcomes. We focus on three aspects of the use of such simulators 1 1 the design of a genenc learning process—learning laboratones—to address service quality management issues in a variety of industrial settings; 2) how dimensions of this leammg can be operaaonalized and measured; and 3) an expenmental study that shows the transfer aspect of leammg and how different learning strategies affect the way in which participants transfer leammg across domains.