( INNOVATION ABSTRACTS \3:¥

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TES Published by the National Institute for Staff and Organizational Development

With support from the W. K. Kellogg Foundation and Sid W. Richardson Foundation

 

 

 

REALITY-TESTING A BUSINESS CURRICULUM

Enrollment trends reflect a significant student shift from the humanities and social sciences to business.
Accompanying that enrollment shift is a change in students’ value orientation which aligns them with practice
rather than with theory. Even when the teaching of theory is necessary, business students typically prefer
theory that is teleologically linked with practice. Such preferences become the catalysts for important business
curriculum decisions.

Business Management is based upon a wide variety of theories--theories which can seem abstract and
somewhat ethereal as they are taught in the classroom. Thus, in order to transport such theories from the cog-
nitive realm to the affective realm, many students need to have the classroom experience supplemented by op-
portunities to reality-test what is taught in the classroom. While case studies, simulation games, and role-
playing provide opportunities for concept application, they do not provide the opportunity for reality-testing
theories and concepts since such “reality” experiments occur within the parameters of rigidly controlled condi-
tions. Even when internships are included in the Business Management curriculum, only limited reality-testing
occurs, for the student actually functions quite often within a very limited sphere of business activities.

In order to address this perceived gap in the academic experiences of business students, an experiment was
conducted in one section of an Introduction to Business course at Howard Community College during the spring
semester, 1984. Students were given the option of writing a paper on someone else’s entrepreneurial experience
or of starting their own small business as a class project. (The project was valued at 20 percent of their final
evaluation.) From a total enrollment of 29, 19 students chose to create their own organizational structure and
start their own collective business (two of the original members were subsequently voted out of the business for
inadequate participation). From the moment of initial formulation of the project, the students were able to “test”
many of the concepts taught in the classroom. Highlights of those “tests” are featured here.

Introduction to Business textbooks always include a chapter on the business environment. This chapter
tends to focus upon social, economic, political and cultural forces which shape the business organization. In
order for the students’ business, Donuts Galore, to open its doors, the students found it necessary to “solve”
problems involving the business environment. In this instance, government regulations were replaced by
campus regulations since the students had decided to operate a coffee and donuts stand on campus. Because of
campus rules, it was necessary for them to “joint venture” with another campus organization--the Howard Com-
munity College Business Club. Additionally, campus regulations required that Donuts Galore be organized as a
non-profit organization. Thus, the students decided to distribute profits as scholarships to member participants.

Still other textbook concepts were tested at this initial stage. The students conducted a market analysis to
determine the type of business that they should open. They discovered that marketing research is more com-
plex than the process described in the textbook. For example, they sought to examine secondary data on sales
trends for various food products; but while the list of instructor-provided sources was quite complete, local pub-
lic and private libraries tended not to carry the data. (However, the information did arrive after the completion
of the project.)

Other concepts were applied with greater ease. In order to choose the precise spot for locating the donut
stand, a location analysis was conducted. The students excitedly stood at varrous locations and measured the
flow of students over a period of several hours. The concept of channels of distribution assumed reality as the
vice-president for production and operations began discussing quantity discounts with companies already in the
business of making donuts. The difference between cost-based and demand-based pricing began to take shape
as the students argued the issue of pricing according to their costs or on the basis of the donut prices charged by
the student cafeteria. Similarly, the demand for rudimentary accounting skills began to emerge as the students
decided to classify their coffee supplies as a current asset and their borrowed percolator as a fixed liability.

The project not only required the application of marketing and accounting concepts; it illuminated concepts
learned in the classroom regarding financial management, organizational behavior, and personnel management.
The students actually refused instructor-offered financial assistance for start-up costs. Rather, they opted to re-
quire each participant to contribute from $3.00 to $5.00. The financial contributions exposed the direct linkages

 

© Program in Community College Education, The University of Texas at Austin, EDB 348, Austin, Texas 78712