Work motivation is a core component of many management courses. However, its effective teaching can be hampered by the fragmentation and seeming incoherence of the various theories of work motivation. To address this challenge, we describe an interactive role-play activity that induces students to synthesize, apply, and compare several theories of…

Situational leadership is a popular management training tool, yet scholars criticize the model's limitations and conflicted empirical support. Management educators are left with a lack of clarity on how to present situational leadership, and this article seeks to address the gap in teaching practice. The experiential role-play activity presented,…

Performance conversations are a critical and necessary part of performance management. Feedback is most effective when it is constructive and when it involves a dialogue rather than a monologue, but people often struggle with this skill. This activity includes an experiential exercise that applies a five-part process for performance feedback,…

We present a case-based role-play exercise that effectively simulates a crisis students must manage. In the exercise, a farm equipment manufacturing company has decided to redirect its product line, and this change requires laying off a significant portion of its workforce. Students must grapple with the fact that a local news report will be…

Employee selection and group decision-making skills are critical for ensuring hiring is valid, meets organizational goals, and considers ethical and legal limitations. This exercise has participants role-play members of a search committee reviewing job finalists using shared and unique information. A novel twist to traditional hidden-profile…

Teaching students how to terminate an employee in a safe, legal, and humane manner provides them with a valuable management skill. This article describes an exercise for teaching students how to conduct termination meetings, guiding them through the process of creating a termination script that is consistent with best practices from the…

As the use of coaching in organizations continues to grow, managers are increasingly expected to coach their subordinates. However, the development of managerial coaching skills has generally not kept up with organizational desires and needs. We offer a role-play methodology with two scenarios for teaching coaching mindset and related skills. The…

This article outlines an active learning exercise that gives students the opportunity to learn and apply the behaviors of transformational leadership theory. Students watch a brief, prerecorded "before" video depicting transactional manager--employee interactions. Students then revise the script so that the manager exhibits the four I's…

This role play focuses on team decision making and is designed for undergraduate and graduate human resource management (HRM) and organizational behavior (OB) courses. It can also support management seminars. Working within Employee Teams, Department Teams, or Manager Teams, students decide which three of five employees will obtain family…

This article presents an active experiential exercise that requires participants to negotiate over scarce resources while assigned separate managerial responsibilities. Students explore concepts associated with integrative and distributive bargaining while engaging in a realistic workplace role-play. Students form pairs and assume the role of…