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

English: South Africa is a country which has experienced far-reaching changes in the political arena during the past two decades. These changes resulted in the improved management of the diverse South African population, which necessitates the effective management of people with disabilities. Disability is an international phenomenon that elicits local, national and international comment. People with disabilities represent a large proportion of people who want to work, but remain unemployed seeing that managers do not acknowledge their potential. The main reason for the exclusion of people with disabilities from the main stream is negative attitudes and prejudice of people without disabilities toward people with disabilities, as well as a lack of awareness of their capabilities. The changing of attitudes is, however, a complex process that includes cognitive, affective and behavioural components. Learning is central to this process since the changing of attitudes includes inevitably some or other form of learning. This learning experience, as well as the reflection on the experience, is known is experiential learning. Interactive drama is a method of experiential learning that challenges learners within a certain situation and with a certain mentality by using their experience as a foundation. More and more organisations turn to drama as training method since interactive drama provides organisations with the opportunity for flexible learning experiences and proves a meaningful instrument to investigate, review or practise human interactions within a secure and controlled learning environment. Several studies have investigated different aspects, namely diversity and physical disabilities as a form of diversity, as well as attitude changes. Other studies focused on attitude changes by using interactive drama. There is, however, a lack of studies that integrate the different components in the application of interactive drama in the changing of attitudes toward people with physical disabilities. The purpose of this study is to investigate interactive drama as a method of experiential learning, to develop a programme for attitude change and to implement and evaluate the programme in an attempt to change the attitudes of managers and employees toward people with physical disabilities. Several theoretical principles and strategies have been incorporated in the development of the programme. For the purpose of this study, the research population consisted of managers and employees from different big and small companies in the Free State who are currently studying a Business Leadership Degree at the School of Management at the University of the Free State. The study made use of a quasi-experimental design since participation in the study was voluntary. The Scale of Attitudes toward Disabled Persons (SADP) was used to investigate the attitude changes of managers and employees toward people 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 of 30 managers and 40 employees. The t-test for dependent groups was used to 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 meaningful change 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- and post-measurement of the experimental group of employees regarding the attitude scores toward people with physical disabilities. programme, subjects have, however, completed a general evaluation questionnaire with the purpose of evaluating their experience of the programme, as well as their own perception of their attitude change toward people with physical disabilities. It is clear from this evaluation questionnaire that the programme resulted in respondents identifying, changing and improving their own prejudice and negative attitudes toward employees with disabilities. Furthermore, this programme gave rise to an increased awareness toward employees with disabilities in general, as well as their skills, duties and challenges. Finally, learners indicated that their attendance of the programme provided employees with disabilities with fair chances of employment. In the light of these results the programme was indeed successful in changing the attitudes of employees and managers toward employees with physical disabilities.