Management in a Test Tube: A Small Group Laboratory Simulation

Abstract

Many of the advances of science have resulted from concepts initially developed under the controlled conditions of the laboratory then later proved in the field. The small group laboratory appears to provide one possibility for such a study of management concepts if we recognize, as Guetzkow & Bowes (1) have pointed out, that any laboratory simulation of real organizations is “purposively partial.” The purpose of this paper is to draw attention to the use of the small group learning laboratory, as a means of developing ideas for management theory and research.