The Influence of Business Simulations on Students’ Psychological Empowerment

Abstract

This chapter introduces a study exploring the impact of pedagogy utilising the computerised business simulation on psychological empower-ment of students in a Higher Education institution. A survey-based instru-ment was designed and administered to the students undertaking different business modules, followed by factor analysis. Subsequently, semi-structured interviews were conducted to verify the empirical findings. The results indi-cate that business simulation has a positive impact on the intrapersonal, interactional and behavioural dimensions of psychological empowerment of the participated business students. Furthermore, our findings suggest that the intrapersonal and interactional dimensions of psychological empower-ment are interconnected through their behavioural and social aspects. The results also suggest that the students felt more confident and fairly self-reliant in decision making in situations involving risk and uncertainty.