Impacto del debate competitivo como técnica de gamificación en el desarrollo de habilidades de comunicación para profesionalesun diseño experimental

Abstract

For decades, those responsible for talent management in organizations have been betting more and better on continuous training policies for their employees to capitalize on the workforce and make a difference in an increasingly competitive environment. Likewise, business schools are sensitive to the need for leaders who know how to manage changes in organizations. For this, leaders need to be trained, not only in technical knowledge, but also in communication and persuasion skills. The plethora of methods for strengthening communication skills is wide and diverse. However, the scientific literature suggests that there are still possibilities for new methods based on gamification, in which the cooperation-competition axis is exploited, with which inter-team dynamics are favored and technology is less prominent. At the same time, the millennial generation, accustomed to play as an educational method and willing to contribute to organizations, demands dynamic and participatory training methods when they reach working age. In all this scenario, the incorporation of new impact methods for training in communication skills is necessary. In this regard, this thesis identifies a method of training with inter-teams, low technology gamification: the competitive debate applied to training in communication skills for professionals. And it is intended to find out if the competitive debate belongs to the field of gamification, to verify if the competitive debate has an impact on the learning of professionals and also exploring what level of receptivity there is towards the technique of competitive debate on their part. To achieve these objectives, an experiment has been designed in which, through a control group and two experimental groups, the effects of the competitive debate on learning are compared with the absence of training stimulus and confronting other types of training (particularly seminar style). Likewise, the opinions of the participants are collected through a semi-closed questionnaire. Prior to the execution of the experiment with adults and in order to previously test the questionnaire and logistics of the experiment, an experience is carried out with business administration and management students. Among other relevant findings, it is worth highlighting the high receptivity of the participants towards the competitive debate, both in the university environment and among professionals. The results of the competence evaluation team, before and after, show a considerable and superior improvement in the group that used competitive debate as a communication training method.