Aesthetic persuasion in theater-based interventions: Exploring persuasive capacities of theater as a mode of management learning and education

The article provides a framework for theorizing aesthetic persuasion in theater-based interventions as a mode of management learning and education. Taking an analytical look at the use of dramatic and postdramatic theater in critical management education, we apply the notion of aesthetic distance, a concept borrowed from aesthetic theory, which enables an exploration of aesthetic persuasion; that is, the processes through which the audience are persuaded to engage in the construction of the theatrical performance situation and its meanings. An analysis of a case of theater-based intervention, the Workshop, shows that aesthetic persuasion may be enhanced through elements of theater-based interventions which facilitate adoption and intensification of the aesthetic distance. The contribution of the paper to critical management education studies is twofold. Our empirical contribution reveals the concurrent aesthetic processes which enable and enhance an aesthetic distance to ‘proper’ degrees during the Workshop, leading to the aesthetic persuasion of its audience. Furthermore, by offering this empirically developed theory of aesthetic persuasion, the paper makes a theoretical contribution to the studies of theater in critical management education. The conclusions may also be helpful in the future design of theater-based interventions aiming to persuade their organizational participants more powerfully and facilitate learning.