Case study: Influencing employee attitudes

This case study is an extract from a research document named “The utilisation of industrial theatre in influencing employee attitudes” by Janice Wilson at the University of Pretoria.

A Division of an Electricity Utility went through a Re-engineering process with dramatic changes in their business processes. This resulted in a 180 degree change in their culture and leadership style. The core leadership had difficulty in creating enough positive momentum towards the changes and decided on an Industrial Theatre intervention to ensure that the attitudes of employees are influenced positively.

In conjunction with the Electricity Utility, The Learning Theatre and the University of Pretoria a study was conducted to investigate whether change in an individual’s attitude towards some object, person, change or symbol. It also determined whether a positive attitude towards transition can be achieved or enhanced through the use of Industrial Theatre.

The literature study discusses the following relevant issues; attitudes, change, the process of changing attitudes, and industrial theatre. Emphasis is placed on not only resistance to change by employees, but also on defining the concept of industrial theatre as means of influencing attitudes.

A questionnaire was designed to measure employee attitudes before the industrial theatre. An identical questionnaire was included in the industrial theatre in order to measure post theatre attitudes. A Likert type scale was used to determine attitudes.

It was found that the Industrial Theatre intervention did in fact influence the perceptions of those employees who attended the intervention. Here are some of the results of the pre and post questionnaires as indicated by the study.

According to the table, the pre and post testing differ significantly on the questions. Scores obtained on the questions were higher at the post measurement than at the pre-testing.

Source: The utilisation of Industrial Theatre in influencing employee attitudes, Janice Wilson, University of Pretoria, 1996.