GIVE FUTURE MANAGERS A SENSE OF RESPONSIBILITY BY HAVING THEM DESIGN A SERIOUS GAME ON THE “CONTRACT/DONATION” MANAGERIAL DILEMMA

Abstract

For several decades, management education has been accused of disseminating an instrumental and mechanical vision of managerial activity. A renewal of both content and pedagogical methods is therefore encouraged, to prepare future managers for a more reflective understanding of their responsibilities: how can reflective pedagogy be put into practice to sensitize students to the dilemmas of management?
Here, we analyze the benefits and limitations of a pedagogical innovation that asks students to design a serious game on the dynamics of gift-giving in the workplace. First of all, this theme introduces a new purpose for organizations, more oriented towards cooperation, and which constitutes a new
managerial dilemma that we call “contract/gift”. The game design exercise also invites students to develop their responsibility towards their managerial practices, in particular by encouraging them to offer players (or collaborators) room for manoeuvre in the arbitration of the dilemma, as well as to
immerse themselves in the resolution of the dilemma thanks to the peer evaluation module.