Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Simulation-Based Learning Environments To Teach Complexity: The Missing Link In Teaching Sustainable Public Management, Michael Deegan, Krystyna Stave, Rod Macdonald, David Andersen, Minyoung Ku, Eliot Rich

Public Policy and Leadership Faculty Publications

While public-sector management problems are steeped in positivistic and socially constructed complexity, public management education in the management of complexity lags behind that of business schools, particularly in the application of simulation-based learning. This paper describes a Simulation-Based Learning Environment for public management education that includes a coupled case study and System Dynamics simulation surrounding flood protection, a domain where stewardship decisions regarding public infrastructure and investment have direct and indirect effects on businesses and the public. The Pointe Claire case and CoastalProtectSIM simulation provide a platform for policy experimentation under conditions of exogenous uncertainty (weather and climate change) as …