Leading Change for Sustainability—Business: Preliminary Evaluation of a Sustainability Simulation for Management Education

Abstract

Simulations are among the active learning strategies advocates have claimed are well-suited for teaching and learning about sustainability challenges and solutions. Recent research reviews have, however, identified a need for simulations that address a broader range of sustainability issues. This is also the case in management education, where the predominant paradigm focuses on traditional shareholder value-based conceptions of corporate responsibility. This article presents the new sustainability-oriented, online computer simulation, Leading Change for Sustainability-Business. The authors present preliminary evaluation data from a study of 87 students who learned with the simulation in a Master of Management program in Thailand. Data analyses focus on students’ engagement with the simulation and their perceptions of its efficacy as an online learning tool. The relevance of this research was enhanced due to the fact that the study was conducted during the COVID-19 pandemic, when all university courses were executed in a fully online learning mode. Initial results support the efficacy of the Leading Change for Sustainability-Business simulation as a helpful tool for learning how to apply knowledge of change management to the challenges of corporate transformation for sustainability. More broadly, the results affirm the viability of simulation-based learning when used in a fully online mode of instruction at the university level.