Aim. Although cultural dimensions theory is a topical strand of quantitative cultural research, few intercultural simulation games use it. We present the design and review of the application of OASISTAN, an intercultural role-playing simulation game that is specifically based on cultural dimensions theory. Method. OASISTAN was first designed in 1999 for use in Master’s courses on cross-cultural management at Delft University of Technology in the Netherlands, attracting 20-23 year old students with a Bachelor degree in engineering and from various cultural backgrounds. Since its first design the game has been played approximately 45 times at Delft University of Technology in the Netherlands and three times at Harbin Institute of Technology in China in the years 2006-2008. We reviewed their experiences designing and facilitating OASISTAN since 1999. Results. The game has a no-tech role-play design and revolves around the geopolitically complex region of the Caspian Sea, specifically the fictional country of ‘Oasistan’. The game consists of students forming small teams of Oasistani, Western and non-Western public/private actors collaborating with each other to try and reach the common goal of oil exploration and production in this country. In total 15-30 students were involved. We found that OASISTAN allowed its players not only to intensely experience the difficulty and awkwardness of being confronted with cultural differences, but also to interpret and understand these differences through cultural dimensions. Students who played OASISTAN identified ten out of the 12 dimensions by Maleki and De Jong. The two dimensions that students were not able to identify are uncertainty avoidance and collaborativeness. Conclusion. OASISTAN shows how a game design field (i.e., intercultural simulation gaming) can be reinvigorated in light of new or updated scientific theories pertaining to the field’s subject matter (i.e., cultural dimensions). Several opportunities for future research are identified.
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This paper presents the design of the offshore energy simulation CEL as a flow network, and its integration in the MSP Challenge 2050 simulation game platform. This platform is designed to aid learning about the key characteristics and complexity of marine or maritime spatial planning (MSP). The addition of CEL to this platform greatly AIDS MSP authorities in learning about and planning for offshore energy production, a highly topical and big development in human activities at sea. Rather than a standard flow network, CEL incorporates three additions to accommodate for the specificities of energy grids: an additional node for each team's expected energy, a split of each node representing an object into input and output parts to include the node's capacity, and bidirectional edges for all cables to enable more complex energy grid designs. Implemented with Dinic's algorithm it takes less than 30ms for the simulation to run for the average amount of grids included in an MSP Challenge 2050 game session. In this manner CEL enables MSP authorities and their energy stakeholders to use MSP Challenge 2050 for designing and testing more comprehensive offshore energy grids.
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The research goal of this dissertation is to make configurational HRM usable for science and practice by developing a simulation model and serious game. These tools offer HRM professionals the opportunity to design a multiyear HRM configuration that shapes employee behaviour, while enabling HRM research to get access to a level of detail that was not achieved earlier, contributing to the current state of the art knowledge on strategic HRM. To shape employee behavior in such a way that it contributes to overarching organizational goals, organizations often deploy a set of human resource management (HRM) practices. If the set of individual HRM-practices is designed correctly, they amplify each other in shaping the desired behavior. However, while there is wide agreement on the importance of combining HRM-practices in a configuration that reflects the organizational strategy, we notice a lack of consensus on which HRM-practices need to be combined given a specific strategic goal and organizational starting point. Furthermore, we did not find an agreement on how to design HRM configurations that shape the desired employee behavior within organizations in multiple years. As a result, HRM professionals that design HRM configurations are left empty handed. While the configurational approach has the potential to provide new insight on how HRM shapes employees’ behavior, applying the configurational mode of theorizing to HRM remains challenging. We explain this challenge by the level of theoretical and practical detail that is needed, by the application of the holistic principle when studying HRM configurations, and due to methodological issues. Traditional methods do not align to the dynamic assumptions and the large number of variables included in configurational HRM. In this dissertation we pose that the time is ripe to unlock the deserved value of configurational HRM for theory and practice. We do so by specifying the underlying assumptions and dynamic implications of the configurational mode of theorizing in HRM, and by defining and adding the needed level of detail. In the current research, configurational HRM is made applicable with the use of a simulation model and serious game. -172- Five sequential steps are taken to make configurational HRM applicable. Firstly, key principles of configurational HRM are identified. Secondly, to ground the simulation we look at the manifestation of ideal type HRM configurations in theory and practice. Thirdly, we collect the solidified practical knowledge of HRM professionals on the alignment of HRM-practices. Fourthly, an initial simulation model is created and tested. And finally, we solidified the simulation model for practice and research by implementing it in a serious game for HRM professionals. Taking these five steps, we have specified configurational HRM to an unprecedented level of detail that allows us to address its complexity empirically and theoretically. We claim that with the results of this research we have opened the scientific and empirical “black box” of configurational HRM. Furthermore, the simulation model and serious game provides HRM professionals with a tool to design firm specific HRM configurations in an interactive and fun way. While prior studies did already acknowledge the importance of alignment when designing HRM, the simulation model and serious game specify the general concept of alignment to a level at which HRM professionals and researchers can start selecting, designing, implementing and researching HRM configurations. The tools provide HRM professionals with a method to grasp, maneuver through the complexity of, and explore the implementation of multi-year firm specific HRM.
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The authors present and discuss the conceptual and technical design of the game Marine Spatial Planning (MSP) Challenge 2050, developed with and for the Netherlands’ ministry of Infrastructure and Environment. The main question in this paper is: What constitutes the socio-technical complexity of marine areas and how can it be translated into a simulation model for serious game-play with marine spatial planners? MSP Challenge 2050 was launched in March 2014 in a two day session with twenty marine planners from six countries. It aims to initiate and support MSP in the various Atlantic regions by bringing policy-makers, stakeholders, scientists together in a ‘playful’ but realistic and meaningful environment. In the North Sea edition of the game, six countries make and implement plans for this sea basin over a period of 35 years, with cumulative effects of their sectoral and national decisions emerging. The authors conclude that the combined and iterative use of complexity modelling and gaming is effective from the perspectives of design (development of a MSP model), research (insight acquired on MSP) and policy (policy-oriented learning and analysis for MSP). Further development and global dissemination of MSP Challenge 2050, as well as research and data collection, is foreseen.
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The Maritime Spatial Planning (MSP) Challenge simulation platform helps planners and stakeholders understand and manage the complexity of MSP. In the interactive simulation, different data layers covering an entire sea region can be viewed to make an assessment of the current status. Users can create scenarios for future uses of the marine space over a period of several decades. Changes in energy infrastructure, shipping, and the marine environment are then simulated, and the effects are visualized using indicators and heat maps. The platform is built with advanced game technology and uses aspects of role-play to create interactive sessions; it can thus be referred to as serious gaming. To calculate and visualize the effects of planning decisions on the marine ecology, we integrated the Ecopath with Ecosim (EwE) food web modeling approach into the platform. We demonstrate how EwE was connected to MSP, considering the range of constraints imposed by running scientific software in interactive serious gaming sessions while still providing cascading ecological feedback in response to planning actions. We explored the connection by adapting two published ecological models for use in MSP sessions. We conclude with lessons learned and identify future developments of the simulation platform.
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Introduction: Given the complexity of teaching clinical reasoning to (future) healthcare professionals, the utilization of serious games has become popular for supporting clinical reasoning education. This scoping review outlines games designed to support teaching clinical reasoning in health professions education, with a specific emphasis on their alignment with the 8-step clinical reasoning cycle and the reflective practice framework, fundamental for effective learning. Methods: A scoping review using systematic searches across seven databases (PubMed, CINAHL, ERIC, PsycINFO, Scopus, Web of Science, and Embase) was conducted. Game characteristics, technical requirements, and incorporation of clinical reasoning cycle steps were analyzed. Additional game information was obtained from the authors. Results: Nineteen unique games emerged, primarily simulation and escape room genres. Most games incorporated the following clinical reasoning steps: patient consideration (step 1), cue collection (step 2), intervention (step 6), and outcome evaluation (step 7). Processing information (step 3) and understanding the patient’s problem (step 4) were less prevalent, while goal setting (step 5) and reflection (step 8) were least integrated. Conclusion: All serious games reviewed show potential for improving clinical reasoning skills, but thoughtful alignment with learning objectives and contextual factors is vital. While this study aids health professions educators in understanding how games may support teaching of clinical reasoning, further research is needed to optimize their effective use in education. Notably, most games lack explicit incorporation of all clinical reasoning cycle steps, especially reflection, limiting its role in reflective practice. Hence, we recommend prioritizing a systematic clinical reasoning model with explicit reflective steps when using serious games for teaching clinical reasoning.
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The European Commission aims for a full circular economy (CE), an economy that aims to reuse all resources in 2050. CE is a promising way to increase welfare and wellbeing while decreasing environmental footprints. Industrial symbiosis, in which companies exchange residuals for resource efficiency, is essential to the circular transition. However, many companies are hesitant to implement business models for industrial symbiosis because of the various roles, stakes, opinions, and resulting uncertainties for business continuity.This dissertation supports researchers, professionals, and students in understanding and shaping circular business models for industrial symbiosis networks through collaborative modelling and simulation methods. Three theoretical perspectives, design science research, complex adaptive socio-technical systems, and circular business model innovation, shed light on designing business models for industrial symbiosis. A serious game and agent-based models were developed in multiple case studies with researchers, practitioners, and students. These were then used to design circular business models and explore their efficacy under uncertain conditions, such as various behavioural intentions of potential partners in diverse natural and societal contexts.This thesis advances business model design and experimentation by integrated simulation of social and technical aspects of industrial symbiosis. Furthermore, the research shows how simulations facilitate learning processes in designing circular business models. Ultimately, the thesis equips researchers, practitioners, and students with knowledge, tools, and methods to shape a circular economy.
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Reflections on skill development theory and simulation game-play practice, using MS Flight Simulator and the MSP Challenge Simulation Platform as cases.
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