ART-BASED LEARNING: CATALYST FOR CHANGE IN CORPORATE CULTURE

The present paper describes a participatory observation conducted over a period of three months regarding the impact of using improvisational theatre formats in an organization seeking to change its corporate culture. The relatively new concept of "art-based learning" (Jackson, 2007; Needlands, 2004; Nicholson, 2006) is a management training technique in which various issues are "acted out" in theatrical fashion. Since theatre creates a type of "meta-language" that allows and/or reinforces the generation of dialogue (Asikainen, 2003) by "making thought visible" (Boal, 1995, p. 137), it can trigger in the participants a sense of ownership and interest in the targeted organisational structure, management, or customer oriented culture change and can be used as a catalyst for transformation. Six non-homogeneous groups, containing a maximum of twelve participants each, were observed in a theatre-based learning setting using three experiential and transformative theatrical arts-based processes/techniques. A formal evaluation of the programme's efficiency showed that the number of proposals of innovative practices / tools generated by the "newly empowered" employees was substantial. In more than eighty percent of the cases, the participants' capacity to reflect and gain new insights into non-traditional solutions and possibilities had increased, thus resulting in more innovative behaviour and practice.