EFECTOS DE ESTA TESIS FRENTE A LA SOLIDARIDAD

Interviewees were asked about their perceptions of the stress involved in studying in the BSC. It was hypothesised by the researcher that working in the business world might make different demands on students from studying theory, possibly leading to an increase in stress due to the challenges of doing business in the real world. Accordingly, respondents were asked to give their views.

Interview Question 1:

Students may experience a lot of stress when they study in the Business Simulation Course. Do you agree or disagree with this statement? Why/ Why not?

All interview respondents agreed that students felt some stress. Stakeholders perceived that the BSC equipped students to work in the real world of business, by exposing them to the kind of stresses they will encounter and by allowing them to develop strategies to deal with these stresses.

Overall, from the interview data, a number of causes of stress were identified and were grouped under the following sub-headings, which will be discussed in turn:

• Lack of teamwork

• Sales targets and assessment

• Time management and course loads Lack of teamwork

All student respondents with first hand experience of working in the BSC commented that the lack of teamwork caused them stress. The following extracts from two interview responses are indicative of students' opinions:

As you know, when people work as a team, there are always problems… the more people the more problems… sometimes when we order products, there is a shortage. Thus, the stresses occur because we cannot respond to the customers' needs. This also occurs because the management team can't work appropriately when they run the company (STU # 1).

Any management system which is complicated requires organisation, which means that someone needs to take responsibility for this. Besides, there are many co-operating parties when we work together; therefore, if there are problems or disagreements, there might be

objections from the organisation or the outsiders, mostly about the process of work, because it has to do with people (STU # 4).

Two of the students who held positions in the Management Team identified other students in the 'Dummy Company' as the cause of their stress.

Actually, students who run the 'Dummy Company' take their positions very seriously; they feel a responsibility to do their best. They have to work co-operatively to meet the company's goals but sometimes it is hard to do that. The stresses in teamwork occur when some people do not work as a team, and do not pull their weight (STU # 5).

Another student felt that, dealing with 'staff' in the 'Dummy Company' (fellow students) and customers was stressful.

I work in a Management Team and sometimes when we run the 'Dummy Company' we disagree with those whom we must deal with, such as sales supervisors and sales representatives…. When customers buy things they want a receipt immediately. Meeting customers' demands means that I am absent from class often because customers' needs must be met as a priority, and this need might occur when I have a class. They [customers] don't understand what I am doing. It is a great responsibility to work as the treasurer (STU # 2).

Staff and non-university stakeholders also identified working cooperatively as a major challenge in the BSC. Typical comments were as follows:

The stress depends on many factors, such as, the course objectives, assessment pressures, the advisors who control the class and students' uncertainty about working co-operatively as a team (STA # 7).

When students are assigned sales targets, the company requires everyone's co-operation. If students work more co-operatively, their stress might decrease (NUS # 3).

All respondents believed that better co-operation between students in the BSC was essential to the success of its business operations. When students work in small teams in the 'Dummy Company' they have the opportunity to learn to share specific experiences and knowledge, listen to and present different viewpoints, and develop their business skills as a group.

Sales targets and assessment

Questionnaire data show students' opinions of their experience with the BSC. The data in Appendix IV, Table A-4 show that the majority (79.50 %) had sales experience working as sales representatives in the BSC and almost half (48.70 %)

were part of the administrative team in the 'Dummy Company'. Moreover, the data show that almost two-thirds of students were confident about meeting their company's goals (64 percent, Item 11). Two-thirds (67 percent) reported that they were meeting their sales targets, while 28 percent were 'not quite sure' and 5 percent (2 students), were not confident at all of meeting the targets (Item 12).

Three quarters of the interviewees agreed that meeting sales targets was a major cause of stress, especially if achieving the sales target was assessed. Comments made by interviewees included:

When I was a student sales representative and before I began studying in the BSC, my sales target was around 20,000 Baht. When I studied in this course, I was quite shocked! The sales target increased 10 times, so that I was worried that I could not reach the sales target (STU # 1).

The company sales target was so high! It was 6 million Baht, but at the end of the project, we exceeded the sales target and sold more than 7 million Baht! That decreased our stress in the end (STU # 5).

Additionally, most respondents said they were afraid that they could not meet the sales objectives and believed that this would affect their grades. This opinion was shared by most students in the BSC. Some non-university members and staff also reflected these concerns:

I absolutely agree. The Business Simulation study makes the students who take this course different from those who do not, and sometimes it causes them stress, because business has its own mechanisms which are different and difficult. Some items, we think can be done, but when it comes to real practice, there might be something blocking it.… Stress occurred when the BSC assessed students for achievement of sales targets (NUS # 1).

If students concentrate on sales volume and think that the number of sales is going to affect their scores or grades, then they put pressure on their family and relatives to buy products from them (NUS # 8). Students might be stressed because they are in the real business world, thus when they run the company they want to reach the sales target and they worry that this might affect their grades (STA # 2).

One staff respondent, on the other hand, was not sure that sales targets caused stress to students in the BSC. As this respondent commented:

Personally, I agree that students get stressed but I'm not sure that it is because of the sales target. I think the aim of teaching and learning in

the BSC is not profit-oriented. Rather, it is about how students collaborate with others. However, this also depends on advisors, course objectives and assessment (STA # 1).

Another staff respondent had a positive view of the sales targets and argued that setting a sales target encouraged students to reach the company's goals: 'From a teacher's viewpoint, I think sales targets must be set as an important aspect in the BSC' (STA # 6).

Time management and course loads

Staff opinions differed on the suitability of the study programme. Staff members considered that there was too much activity required in the BSC. As one commented:

Senior students have many activities, not only major subjects but the other core business courses as well. They have to work hard both in class and on fieldwork. I think the study programme is an unsuitable programme (STA # 6).

However, other staff members thought that the BSC requirements reflected the importance of the course to students, for example:

I think it [the BSC] is the major subject of importance to the senior students. It is not like traditional subjects, and so they have to work harder than in other subjects and it is time consuming (STA # 3).

The pressure of limited time was seen as a stress-producing factor by another staff member:

Time is another factor that caused students stress because this unit takes so much time and they [students in the BSC] are attached to their work (STA # 1).

Generally, staff agreed that stress was a factor in the BSC; however, they saw it as having multiple causes. However, one staff member stated that stress was often self- induced and was not always negative in its effect, as follows:

They might have some stress but not too much and not all of them [students in the BSC]. I believe only some of them do. We know this from discussing the issue with the students. This type of stress comes from the students themselves. They are afraid that they might be unable to do the practice, or fail to sell the amount fixed by the company. Therefore, students will feel stress and, after that, the stress they have is like the power pushing them to a higher level of responsibility and duty (STA # 4).

Lack of experience was identified as a cause of stress by a student, who commented: I agree because it is like training for a career and it is like the first time at running a real business, which we have never done before. It is the work which I experience with outsiders, apart from the teacher and other students; we don't know them and have never done this business before.… However, if students really focus on their work, grade and points will be something that they worry less about, because their main aim will be to work better (STU # 4).

4.1.1.2 Stakeholders' Perceptions of the Major Skills Gained in the Business