Teaching and learning of organizational improvisation: The value of theater in management learning

Barbosa, Fernanda P. M.; Davel, Eduardo P. B.

doi:10.1590/1678-6971/eRAMG220108.en

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Human and Social Management • RAM, Rev. Adm. Mackenzie 23 (4) • 2022 • https://doi.org/10.1590/1678-6971/eRAMG220108.en copy

Teaching and learning of organizational improvisation: The value of theater in management learning

Authorship SCIMAGO INSTITUTIONS RANKINGS

Abstract

Purpose:

This article aims to understand the implications of theatrical improvisation in the teaching and learning processes of organizational improvisation.

Originality/value:

Management constantly deals with changes and unforeseen events, as research on organizational improvisation has shown for more than two decades. However, managers are still trained to face stable situations and not those of organizational turbulence. Management educators lack teaching and learning options aimed at developing organizational improvisation skills.

Design/methodology/approach:

The research is based on theories about organizational improvisation, theater improvisation, and management teaching-learning. Several teaching and learning practices of organizational improvisation based on theatrical improvisation were analysed - practices of a curricular component of a Management undergraduate program carried out during six academic terms. The qualitative methodology was based on an artistic approach and several sources of information (short stories, theater, direct observation, press conferences, and documents).

Findings:

The results are categorized into organized implications between four synergies (logic of practice, practice of the narrative, the creativity, and corporeality) and three entropies (shame to practice, fear of making mistakes, and habit of dispersing) of the use of theatrical improvisation for teaching and learning organizational improvisation in the training of contemporary managers. The research results contribute to the advancement of knowledge about organizational improvisation, as they unfold a proposal for a more precise understanding of teaching and learning of organizational improvisation. This study also enhances the linkage between fields of knowledge (theater and management), increasing of the knowledge that contributes to the advancement of research and practice of teaching and learning organizational improvisation.

Keywords
theater improvisation; organizational improvisation; teaching-learning; theater; contemporary management

Work or activity	Definition	Description
A1	Theater practice	Warm-up exercises (games, spatial relationship, and diction) and theatrical improvisation (14 lessons).
A2	Organizational practice	Theoretical classes on production and planning (seven classes), practical exercises on individual and group planning (eight classes), holding the event (two extra days), and evaluations (two classes).
A3	Artist for programming	Composition of the EAF program with artists: each student is responsible for inviting at least two artists.
T1	Organizational practice	Definition of concepts, creation of a fundraising project, visit to potential sponsors, elaboration of a cover letter, and creation of an action plan.
T2	Organizational improvisation tale	To narrate in the form of a short story that registers and communicates the essence of the learning performed in the curricular component. The student has as a source of fiction: themselves as characters and the experience of the organization and management of the EAF as an environment of the story. Engaging, the short story should describe how the character integrates and relates the ability to improvise in theater and in organizations.
T3	Learning logbook	Regular and detailed description of how each student experiences and learns from the activities, focusing on challenges, planning, creativity, improvisations, innovations, behaviors, personal transformations, and collective work.
T4	Collaborative assessment	Collaborative critiques about the work of the colleagues, choosing the ten most significant critiques and reflecting on their value in the personal learning process.
A4	Semi-structured collective interview	Collective assessment of the experience and learning of each student during the last class of the entire process in the curricular component.

Technique	Work or activity	Definition	Type of narrative
Direct observation	A1	Theater practice	Artistic
	A2	Organizational practice	Expository, reflective, descriptive
	A3	Artist for programming	Descriptive, reflective
Documents	T1	Organizational practice (classroom and virtual environment)	Descriptive, reflective, artistic, expository
	T2	Organizational improvisation tale	Artistic, reflective, descriptive, expository
	T3	Learning logbook	Reflective, descriptive
	T4	Collaborative assessment	Reflective
Interview	A4	Semi-structured collective interview	Reflective

Name	Description	Goals
Answering in the dark	The student stands in the center of the blindfolded circle. Everyone can ask him a question, one person at a time. The student should respond in the direction of the voice that asked, making an effort to look into the person’s eyes, even while blindfolded.	Reflex activation, trust, and listening.
Walking in the dark	The class is divided into pairs. Everyone does the activity at the same time, but each one must pay attention only to their partner. One of the two is outside and must enter blindfolded. The student in the room must modify the space and define goals: make the classmate sit in a chair, get a pen from the table etc. The blindfolded student can only listen to verbal commands.	Reflex activation, trust, and listening.
Singing and moving	In a circle, everyone looks at each other, but no one can speak. Anyone who wants to start sings a song looking at everyone in the circle. When the person has finished singing, they should say a single word that expresses the feeling or emotion that the person experienced when singing. When silence sets in again, someone else starts to sing.	Disinhibition, attitude, trust, and listening.
Waking up the voice	In a circle, we make chewing movements. Students should imagine eating very tasty things and also very bad things, being able to express themselves only with the sound of the letter m for three minutes. Then, we follow a vibration sequence, with the tongue or lips, doing a search in the resonance boxes.	Articulation, vocal emission, and disinhibition.
Continuing the story	With the class in a circle, one person begins to tell a story and, when the instructor claps the hands, the person next to them should continue the story. Everyone in the circle contributes to the story. Up to the middle of the circle, people bring up conflicts and different characters. Halfway through people should bring up resolutions and consequences. The last person must finish the story.	Memory, creativity, and playfulness.

Name	Description	Goals
Tragedies and comedies	Divide the room into groups of three. Each group must imagine a tragic and a comical situation that could happen during the event. The situations must be told in the form of a scene and each participant can assume as many characters as they want.	Disinhibition, creativity, and memory.
ABC	Two students are chosen. The group defines which environment they will meet: a market, an amusement park, the pharmacy, the living room etc. When setting the location, they have five seconds to define what character they are and start a dialogue. The lines spoken by them must follow the alphabet sequence. The first character to speak must begin its sentence with a word starting with the letter A. When the other character responds, the first word in the sentence must be the letter B, and so on, until the last letter of the alphabet.	Disinhibition, creativity, memory, and readiness.
Actors, narrators, and audience	The students are divided into three groups: actors, narrators and audience. The actors will interpret the story created by the narrators and will be watched by the audience. This exercise can be used in preproduction to imagine situations that may occur in the event and also in postproduction as a situation in which they expose their points of view. The narrators define the story and tell the actors which characters they will be, but they do not say what will happen. The story is told at the time of the performance and the actors must execute everything that is narrated. The exercise must be repeated three times, so that everyone goes through the three groups.	Disinhibition, creativity, and memory.

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[1] Fernanda P. M. Barbosa is now a researcher at the Postgraduate Management Center of Federal University of Bahia (UFBA); Eduardo P. B. Davel is now a professor at the School of Management of UFBA.