Vicki S. Kaman, Cynthia Bentson, and Waldo R. Jones

Training of managerial action skills must be based on an understanding of what managers do. Managers make requests to their superiors, diagnose problems with employees, talk to difficult and important customers, negotiate with groups of workers, and explain discrepancies to regulatory agencies. Managers must be able to come across to others as assertive, understanding, confident, calm, enthusiastic, receptive, quick, thoughtful .....etc. during the continuous, planned and unplanned, long and short face-to-face interactions which they experience during a typical working day. Operating managers, as well as management students, recognize the importance of "people skills" to management competence, and are asking that their education and training include more practice in these skills (Porter & McKibbin, 1988).

Role playing techniques are often used to diagnose interactive skills, to provide models and practice, and to motivate individuals to pay more attention to their interpersonal impact (Milroy, 1982; Wexley & Latham, 1981; Wohlking, 1976). Some limitations of role playing as an attitude and behavior change technique have been discussed (Kidron, 1977), but the technique is popular and is widely used by teachers and trainers in both academia and industry. Although the effectiveness of more complex behavior modeling techniques using role playing has been researched (Wexley & Latham, 1981), there is a lack of new suggestions on how to enhance role playing itself. We are convinced that an interdisciplinary approach to role playing, which includes involvement of trained actors, is one way to both enhance and better understand the effectiveness of certain role playing applications.

During several years of work with role play simulations in assessment centers (Bentson & Kaman, 1989; Kaman & Bentson, 1988), we have learned that there are logical reasons derived from learning principles, research on role playing, and acting theory to support the employment of trained actors in creating realistic and engaging role play situations. When assessing candidate skills for the job of a city personnel director, for example, two trained actors, contacted through the local professional theater group, played the roles of two informal employee representatives who were threatening to unionize labor-trades employees. Candidates, who had been given the chance to prepare a negotiation strategy, were brought face to face with the actor-employees, who not only skillfully attempted to manipulate the candidate-personnel directors, but also argued with each other. Other roles for which we have employed trained actors include those of opinionated supervisors who will not cooperate with colleagues, distressed police officers who inappropriately handle volatile citizens (also actors), and valuable employees who are unhappy with their jobs. Participants in these actor-enhanced role play situations have found them to be so real and engaging that we have named the role plays "Simulated Realities" (Bentson & Kaman, 1989).

Recently, we recognized the potential for creating similar realistic situations for management training or, in select situations, for the college classroom. In the first author's graduate organization development class, for example, it was desirable to give students some realistic practice interviewing managers before sending them out to test their skills with local business people. The instructor worked with the actor to create the role of a manager who wanted help, but was defensive; alluded to problems, but then claimed they had been solved; believed in modern management principles, but did not basically value his employees. The actor-manager came to the class fully prepared to discuss his business, and realistically communicated his desire to obtain some quick suggestions on how to boost productivity. Three teams of 3-4 students interviewed the manager in order to conduct a preliminary diagnosis of management issues and recommend whether OD strategies could be useful. The next class session was spent diagnosing the manager and organization and discussing how to improve OD interviewing skills.

During a third class period, half the class wrote their versions of how the "manager" would give feedback to his employees, while the other half wrote dialogue for their feedback to the manager. This process, adapted from Argyris (1982), revealed that the students' feedback to the manager was parental, self-serving, did not communicate real understanding, and was likely to elicit defensiveness. The students' approach to giving feedback was, to everyone's amazement, very similar to the approach they felt would be used by the "Theory X" manager they had interviewed. It then also became evident to the class that they had not communicated understanding and had elicited defensiveness from the "real" manager during their interviews. The entire process provided a relatively safe but very dramatic demonstration of how even those of us who know better often interact in ineffective ways. Subsequent discussions dealt with the difficulties and skills involved with effective interactions, and regularly referenced specific parts of the meeting with the actor-manager to illustrate important points.

1. A Relevant Situation is Defined

Actor-enhanced role plays should represent the critical, relevant, and complex aspects of situations which are likely to be faced by the managers or managers-to-be. In academic settings (e.g. a graduate program in business), ideas might come from case studies that are normally used in class, the instructor's insights into management work, students' observations and work experiences, or lists of competencies which serve as course objectives (Bigelow, 1983). In a corporate training situation, a critical-incident-based task analysis (Wexley & Latham, 1981) of management jobs is used to determine both the skills to be elicited in the role play and the critical attributes of the situation in which that skill must be performed (Kaman & Bentson, 1988).

A trained actor aiming to create a complete, live character for an enhanced role play will need more than the usual couple of paragraphs of background information given in most role play exercises. Our background materials look more like novelettes than exercise instructions, and include information such as where and when the characters were born, where they went to school, what their family and work history has been, whom they like and dislike, as well as the standard information on how they got to the situation to be role played. Writing out this information helps us, the creators and users of the role play exercise, to clarify what our training objectives are as we think through the questions and reactions that our participants are likely to have, and anticipate what behaviors they will have the opportunity to demonstrate.

While detailed information must be provided to the actors, the background information given the student or trainee varies, depending on the exercise. Some exercises require the ability to incorporate detailed information (a strategic planning meeting, for example); whereas others (e.g. dealing with a customer in the participant's own company) would be handled with very little preparation in real-life. The aim of these enhanced role plays is to have the participant play him or herself so that, once the situation is defined, the participant draws from his or her own experience and skills during the interaction.

An effective actor will need some time to flesh out the character in his or her own mind, and to try out or rehearse the character in order to develop a consistent presentation of the character's desired attributes. At the very least, actors need to "talk-through" the scenario with the exercise developer. A full-blown rehearsal, with a couple of "trial" participants going through the exercise is extremely helpful with more complex scenarios.

These dry runs help clarify what is expected from both actor and participant. First, the actor must understand what the objectives of the exercise are. A proficient improvisational actor will create opportunities for all participants to demonstrate the target knowledges or skills. If sensitivity to a subtle employee problem is appropriate, for example, the actor may give several cues to his situation when the participant does not pick up on the first one. The rehearsal allows the actor to develop several scripted lines which are inserted appropriately each time the scene is played. It also allows the actor to assess how far to push a participant, and to anticipate possible participant responses. In a negotiation role play, for example, the actor may be asked to give in on some points if the participant genuinely listens and considers the actor's point of view.

It is easy to understand why role plays, despite their requirements for active participation, often elicit only limited involvement (Kidron, 1977). Class participants are asked to interact with colleagues whom, they know, have been given limited information on the background of a situation and, possibly, are playing someone very different from themselves. Participants playing managers know that they must limit their actions and questions to issues which are contained in the pre-defined situation. A student role playing a manager in class, for example, knows that the role played employee will have trouble answering questions about years of experience with the company or plans for the future when this information has not been given in advance.

Trained actors, however, know how to take their own experiences, whether or not these experiences are directly related to the scenario at hand, and draw from them to create a real person, who matches the role play scenario, but with significantly more depth and breadth than a set of role play instructions can provide. The depth comes from the actor's ability to create a real character using his or her own real experiences and real emotions. Actors are trained to tap their inner resources to create a character who is different from their everyday selves and, yet, who is genuine (Bates, 1987; Carnovsky & Sander, 1984). The actor's ability to interact as a genuine person, along with the capability of improvising within the defined parameters of the role play, engages participants so that the self-conscious, artificial behaviors we often see in role plays are replaced by involved, genuine behaviors by the participant.

We have also found that most trained actors are very capable of quickly generating "factual" material which they may need during a role play situation. They can provide credible information based on their own experiences and preparation, or can quickly change the focus of the situation from the unknown facts to something more relevant. We have seen actors, for example, quickly generate the name and job title of hypothetical employees, or offer to bring budgetary figures to a manager later in the day.

Feedback is an essential component of any well-designed training program (Wexley & Latham, 1981). Role play exercises typically provide summary feedback for the trainee or student via observations by classmates or instructors which are given after the situation has been played to completion (Wohlking, 1976). Trained actors provide feedback throughout the exercise which is immediate and which the participant is highly motivated to attend to, since it provides clues about how to behave in the here and now. An actor selects and experiences those emotions which are appropriate for the character and the situation. Since the actor's emotional responses are real, the character's verbal and non-verbal behaviors come across as real (Bates, 1987). Although these reactions cannot be specifically scripted, an effective actor portrays a real person, and behaves consistently as that character. If the "manager" behaves in a way that would be calming to a distressed employee, the actor will be visibly calmer than before the calming management behaviors. If the participant-manager behaves in a way that would anger the actor-employee, the trained actor will give clues reflecting the anger he feels, while maintaining the behavior of a realistic employee, who is afraid to express anger directly at the "boss." This immediate, realistic, feedback can inspire participants to try out new behaviors during the exercise, and receive additional feedback on their success.

In order to be successful, actors develop a heightened sensitivity to both their own and others' reactions and feelings. We have found trained actors to provide very useful feedback to participants after a role play exercise, because they can clearly describe how specific participant behaviors affected them. Actors may point out, for example, that a participant's tone of voice made them feel intimidated, or that they did not believe that their "manager" would follow through with a commitment. The actor's feedback can add a new, important dimension to the feedback based on observations of the instructor and classmates.

Trained actors working on the development of a role play exercise will ask a lot of questions about the individual they are about to "play." They want not only to establish the background facts about the situation and character, but to understand who the person is, and how they are likely to behave in any situation. Consistency in a trained actor's role play comes from the fact that the actor becomes a genuine person, and no longer needs a script to know how that person will think, feel and act. This consistency is essential if role plays are to be used for skill practice. Ideally, participants will have the opportunity to consider their performance feedback, and then manage the role play situation again, with increased competence. A trained improvisational actor will change responses to match the participant's increased competency.

One explanation for the underutilization of simulations is that participation seems more like playing than work, and the training process seems trivial (Jacobs & Baum, 1987). Participation in many role play exercises does seem like a game when an individual steps in and out of a role or "burlesques" a role (Wohlking, 1976). The game-playing quality of many exercises can serve as a protective mechanism for the participant, the trainer, and any amateur role players who act to create a scenario. Students or trainees can see the exercise as a game which does not reflect their true abilities. Administrators and role players respect the "right" of the participant not to have to reveal his/her inner self and to be protected from a potentially threatening situation.

The actor's training, however, emphasizes control (Bates, 1987; Carnovsky, 1984), and a trained actor can push a participant enough to force real involvement and real reactions without overly damaging the participant's self-esteem and motivation to continue skill improvement. For example, a trained actor can play a difficult person subtly (e.g. by being sarcastic or by non-verbal signs of arrogance), which allows the participant a choice in deciding which aspects of the situation to deal with. The actor's control, however, does not allow the difficult aspects to go away, and an effective actor can persist until the participant feels ready to confront the anxiety-producing difficulties. A trained actor can actively push the participant "manager," by behaviors such as arguing, screaming, being very assertive, but will know when the participant has reached a level of discomfort beyond which pushing will suppress, rather than elicit, appropriate behavior. Effective improvisational acting includes knowing when to end or change a situation when it is not progressing. Of course, a class climate conducive to trust, adequate preparation, and use of constructive feedback by the class and instructor will still be important to the ethics and success of role play-based training (Wohlking, 1976).

While effective role plays must not stray far from the training objectives (Wohlking, 1976), attitude and behavior changes resulting from role plays are more likely if participants become involved, can genuinely consider the issues involved in the situation (Kidron, 1977), and have the opportunity to improvise, based on their own choices to participate in the exercise (Goldstein & Sorcher, 1974; Kidron, 1977). It is difficult to improvise and use a variety of behaviors when you must accommodate the limited capabilities of a role-playing classmate. When role play participants are fully involved in a realistic situation with a trained actor, they have no choice other than to behave genuinely themselves, and must improvise, using their own knowledge and skills, to handle an immediate situation which has fully engaged their attention.

Working with and watching trained actors can be a tremendous amount of fun, but there are some important issues to consider, both philosophical and practical, before implementing actor-enhanced roleplays in the classroom.

1. Select appropriate applications.

These role play simulations require more effort and usually cost more than less sophisticated techniques, and are not an appropriate choice for every learning situation calling for a role play exercise. For our most recent OD class role play, the instructor spent about 3 hours developing the character with the actor, and arranged for an honorarium of $75 for the 1 1/4 hour class appearance. When a role play is used to stimulate discussion or to clarify issues (Milroy, 1982), using student role players seems perfectly appropriate. Similarly, most students have enough information and experience to serve as the basis for an exercise designed to demonstrate and allow practice of a specific skill, such as active listening (See, for example, Lau and Shani's (1988) coaching and goal setting exercise, #27, p. 323).

Actor-enhanced role plays are most effective when individuals are learning to deal with complex situations which, like the realities of management life, require that a variety of management skills be effectively integrated and applied at the same time (Bigelow, 1983). In the OD class exercise involving interviews of an actor-manager described above, for example, the trained actor was able to realistically portray many of the typically-experienced, verbal and non-verbal defensive managerial behaviors in a more engaging way than a student role player would have done, and in a shorter time period than the experience with a real manager would have required. Employment of the actor also allowed the class to practice their interviewing skills with much less risk of embarrassment (for both the students and the business college) than if a real manager had been invited to class.

2. Consider the Ethics of Deception

In a teaching or training situation, it is possible to successfully convince participants that they are interacting with an individual who really is the person being portrayed by the actor. In the OD simulation described above, for example, graduate management students were told that a manager was coming to visit with the class, and they believed throughout the role play exercise that the stranger in the class was really a manager and company owner. While student motivation to meet with the manager was very high, debriefing was particularly important, especially since students had concerns about their ability to help someone who had spent time talking with them. We believe that a temporary deception is okay, if justified by the learning opportunity and if students are properly debriefed. We suggest debriefing as soon as possible after the role play, and discussing the benefits of using trained actors. In our experience, students were relieved to find out that they had been practicing in a "safe" situation, and appreciated the realism of the simulation.

3. Obtain resources creatively

Most business colleges probably don't have funds specified in the budget for actors -- yet. Some department chairs and deans might find actors' fees to be an unconventional classroom expense. A rationale which may work is to consider whether funds are used for expenses such as videotape rental, speakers or field trips. The learning opportunity offered by a trained actor who is effectively used is certainly as great as that offered by the other resources. Many trained actors welcome the opportunity to do improvisational performing and, while effective acting is work deserving compensation, the opportunity offered the actor can be part of the compensation package.

Whether or not funds are available, there is always a possibility for collegial reciprocity. Most universities have theater departments which may appreciate the opportunity for their students to learn about applications of their skills in the business world. Community theater groups are another good resource. Often, trained actors in these groups have jobs outside the theater and many experiences which help them to portray realistic business interactions. The opportunity to combine their acting skills with their other job experiences can be very appealing. An additional suggestion is to find out whether anyone within your class or among your faculty have acting skills and to ask whether they would like to work with you to create a simulation. Another alternative is for you or a department resource person to obtain some training so that your classes can benefit from some more engaging role play scenarios.

4. Make the Most of Each Simulated Reality

Since much effort must go into the planning of the scenarios we call Simulated Realities, it makes sense to re-use successful scenes and to make the most of any one enacted situation. Actors are trained to be consistent as they replay the same character, so they will not mind repeating the same scenario with several students or for several class sessions. Since the scenarios are complex and realistic, situations do not lose their impact when students who have observed others have an opportunity to interact with the actor. Trained improvisational actors are also able to continue portraying the same real person through a sequence of related events while different students take over a managerial role, for example. Videotaping capabilities further enhance the usefulness of a simulation. The videotape can be shown to participants when discussing their performance, so that they see and hear their behaviors, rather than rely on faulty or biased memories. Videotapes can also be used to illustrate effective and ineffective approaches to subsequent classes who do not have the opportunity to role play themselves.

Actor-enhanced roleplays offer the opportunity to create very realistic, engaging, standardized situations so that students can experience organizational realities and practice management skills within the relatively safe confines of the classroom. Those who implement these exercises in their classes can expect to gain a thorough understanding of their own teaching objectives and of management interactions as they work closely with trained actors to define their expectations and work with students to analyze the events which unfold. They can expect to obtain a different perspective on human behavior, as they have the opportunity to predict what will happen in a structured, yet natural interpersonal situation. And they can expect to gain a new appreciation for the acting discipline and, possibly to consider the possibility that acting skills might be useful for managers themselves.

Student participants typically are impressed with the actor's ability to elicit real reactions and real involvement from them, but can also be disappointed with their performance in complex interactions. It is important that they be given both the opportunity to discuss simulated events and the opportunity to improve and feel competent. Ideally, they will be able to replay their interactions more effectively or, at least, they will be able to discuss how to improve and practice new skills. Students who observe their peers interact with trained actors will be attentive, and can learn much about observation and feedback skills. Guidance and coaching observers is an important role for the teacher or facilitator.

Teachers, students and actors have the opportunity to learn more about themselves and the nature of human interaction at work. As with most learning, not all that we find out is fun. Students may find they are not as competent as they want to be, teachers may find that they can't handle every interaction effectively themselves, and actors find that improvisational acting is tough work. The costs and risks of simulated realities indicate that they should be used sparingly, and only when there is enough time and energy for adequate preparation, analysis and debriefing. A manager's interpersonal skills, however, are an essential aspect of his or her effectiveness. Realistic opportunities to diagnose and practice these skills are a valuable tool for developing needed competencies.