Managing a Post-Communist Economy: A Gaming/Simulation Study

Abstract

Successful transformation from a command-and-control into a market economy, whether economic, political or social, has to include changes in attitudes, development of new skills, and adaptation to new circumstances. Ex-communist legislators, policy-makers, or managers have to respond flexibly to fluid, open-system circumstances never before experienced. The process of retraining results in increased intellectual awareness of new management standards. However, it tends to bring about only little change in management practice. To explain this phenomenon as well as some other key issues concerning business transformation, a game-based study was undertaken last year. In this paper we discuss examples of management perception of different challenges when change is accomplished in the simulated environment and matched with verbal statements concerning exactly the same problems. The heritage of management culture and fears concerning business transformation are also presented.