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In recent years, organizational psychologists, theatre companies, and drama therapists have built training programs for businesses ([8] Gluck and Rubenstein, 2007). This article's argument is rooted in the metaphor of "Organization as theatre" ([3] Bolman and Deal, 2008) and claims that "applied theatre in corporate training (ATCT)" is a new concept and methodology. ATCT is also practically referred to as "arts-based training" ([7] Gibb, 2004) or "arts-based method" ([16] Taylor and Ladkin, 2009). Corporate examples are improvisation techniques with service employees ([6] Daly et al. , 2009), and Augusto Boal's Theatre of the Oppressed as training and intervention for managers ([9] Nissley et al. , 2004).
I previously worked at a consulting firm that provides this training and am nowa scholar of performance studies. With my insider's eyes to the professional and academic worlds, this literature review article traces how drama, theatre, and performance can be applied in business, theoretically and practically. It covers four areas of specialization, including organizational behavior, educational theatre, drama therapy, and performance studies. It identifies and concludes that ATCT can enhance the main competencies in business settings - leadership, communication, creativity, team building, and emotion management. These five competencies are based on my systematic review of Western academic publications. Furthermore, I utilized these five competencies in my consulting practice.
Conceptualization of applied theatre in corporate training
Drama and theatre are not simply located in the aesthetic and artistic context ([13] Sternberg, 1998). [4] Courtney (1974) in his classic work, Play, Drama & Thought: The Intellectual Background to Drama in Education , defines "educational drama" as the ways in which youth or children use "dramatic play for learning". He also uses the phrase "theatre based in dramatic play" to describe the phenomenon that mature learners, above eighteen years old, use theatre to learn.
Following this thinking, "theater" rather than "drama" is properly used to refer to the emerging field in business of what I call "adults' play". However, instead of "educational theatre in business", the name "applied theatre in corporate training" (ATCT) is better matched because it permits more open-ended application in various types of theatres-it lends itself to various locations such as conference rooms, hotels, and retreat centers and can be used for different groups such as CEOs, top managers,...