Die verandering van bestuurders en werknemers se houding teenoor werknemers met fisieke gestremdhede deur middel van interaktiewe drama

[摘要] English: South Africa is a country which has experienced far-reaching changes in thepolitical arena during the past two decades. These changes resulted in theimproved management of the diverse South African population, whichnecessitates the effective management of people with disabilities. Disabilityis an international phenomenon that elicits local, national and internationalcomment. People with disabilities represent a large proportion of people whowant to work, but remain unemployed seeing that managers do notacknowledge their potential. The main reason for the exclusion of peoplewith disabilities from the main stream is negative attitudes and prejudice ofpeople without disabilities toward people with disabilities, as well as a lack ofawareness of their capabilities.The changing of attitudes is, however, a complex process that includescognitive, affective and behavioural components. Learning is central to thisprocess since the changing of attitudes includes inevitably some or otherform of learning. This learning experience, as well as the reflection on theexperience, is known is experiential learning. Interactive drama is a methodof experiential learning that challenges learners within a certain situation andwith a certain mentality by using their experience as a foundation. More andmore organisations turn to drama as training method since interactive dramaprovides organisations with the opportunity for flexible learning experiencesand proves a meaningful instrument to investigate, review or practise humaninteractions within a secure and controlled learning environment.Several studies have investigated different aspects, namely diversity andphysical disabilities as a form of diversity, as well as attitude changes. Otherstudies focused on attitude changes by using interactive drama. There is,however, a lack of studies that integrate the different components in theapplication of interactive drama in the changing of attitudes toward peoplewith physical disabilities.The purpose of this study is to investigate interactive drama as a method ofexperiential learning, to develop a programme for attitude change and toimplement and evaluate the programme in an attempt to change theattitudes of managers and employees toward people with physicaldisabilities. Several theoretical principles and strategies have beenincorporated in the development of the programme.For the purpose of this study, the research population consisted ofmanagers and employees from different big and small companies in theFree State who are currently studying a Business Leadership Degree at theSchool of Management at the University of the Free State. The study madeuse of a quasi-experimental design since participation in the study wasvoluntary. The Scale of Attitudes toward Disabled Persons (SADP) was usedto investigate the attitude changes of managers and employees towardpeople with physical disabilities.The total number of respondents who participated in the study where 133.The total numbers of subjects, who were exposed to the intervention,consisted of 33 managers and 30 employees. The control group consisted of30 managers and 40 employees. The t-test for dependent groups was usedto investigate any differences within the groups. The following results were obtained from the study:It is evident that this programme has not caused a statistically meaningfulchange in the attitudes regarding physical disability. At the end of the•There is no statistically meaningful difference between the pre- and post-measurement of the experimental group of managers regarding the attitude scores toward people with physical disabilities.•There is no statistically meaningful difference between the pre- andpost-measurement of the experimental group of employeesregarding the attitude scores toward people with physical disabilities.programme, subjects have, however, completed a general evaluationquestionnaire with the purpose of evaluating their experience of theprogramme, as well as their own perception of their attitude change towardpeople with physical disabilities.It is clear from this evaluation questionnaire that the programme resulted inrespondents identifying, changing and improving their own prejudice andnegative attitudes toward employees with disabilities. Furthermore, thisprogramme gave rise to an increased awareness toward employees withdisabilities in general, as well as their skills, duties and challenges. Finally,learners indicated that their attendance of the programme providedemployees with disabilities with fair chances of employment. In the light ofthese results the programme was indeed successful in changing theattitudes of employees and managers toward employees with physicaldisabilities.

[发布机构] University of the Free State