Understanding Organizational Dynamics of IT-Enabled Change: A Multimedia Simulation Approach

Successful implementation of IT-enabled change requires good management of the change process and of the various sources of resistance that typically accompany the introduction of such change. As a result, helping managers better understand the dynamics of organizational processes is an important objective for IS and IT educators. The EIS Simulation is a new computer-based multimedia simulation that allows managers to experience the process of introducing an EIS in a fictitious organization. It has been used extensively over the last two years with groups of management students and executives. The paper presents the simulation and discusses its potential pedagogical benefits, possible extensions, and use in a research context. More generally, the EIS Simulation provides a first step in the development of a new generation of pedagogical tools: computer-based organizational games exploiting the potential of multimedia and object-oriented technology to provide managers with realistic experiential learning environments. Acknowledgments: An earlier version of this paper appeared in the Proceedings of the Thirtieth Annual Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences (IEEE Computer Society Press, 1997). The authors would like to thank their colleagues at INSEAD's Centre for Advanced Learning Technologies (CALT), Joseph Wolfe, Bob Briggs, Jay Nunamaker, and two anonymous reviewers of the original paper for their thoughtful comments and suggestions. Journal of Management Information Systems / Winter 1997-98, Vol. 14, No. 3, pp. 109-140. © 1998 M.E. Sharpe, Inc. 0742-1222 / 1998 $9.50 + 0.00. 110 MANZONI and ANGEHRN