Finding an Effective Means of Teaching Managerial Behavioral Skills: Two Different Experiential Teaching Methods Compared

Abstract

This Study was undertaken to try to discover an effective means of reaching managerial action skills. Two methods were designed and tested. One approach featured experiential in-class exercises. The customary exercises of this approach, however, were augmented with action/initiation- assertion modifications and additional action exercises. The other approach featured experiential out-of-class activities. A progressive series of exercises was designed to condition subjects to take on a succession of increasingly difficult action skills In their everyday lives. They literally learned on the streets. Only the latter approach proved significant in changing five action-oriented characteristics of subjects, as measured by pre and post testing.