Fasiliteerderopleiding

Abstract

Since the last visit to South Africa by Carl Rogers and Ruth Sanford in 1986, many businesses in the country showed enthusiasm to train person-centered facilitators as change agents for the post-apartheid South Africa. Unfortunately, this training never really got momentum because of (amongst other reasons) the misconception about the nature of the process and skills of facilitation. This research can be seen as a continuation of Rogers and Sanford's work in an effort to explain facilitation to management, train facilitators working in cross-cultural communication situations in South African organisations and evaluate this training. Facilitation is conceptualised from the person-centered approach and operationalised by making use of different training models from the human potential movement. A facilitation training model and an experiential learning workshop were constructed. Fifty personnel and training officers attended the workshop. the evaluation battery included the Carkhuff scales, the Personal Orientation Inventory and the Self-actualising characteristics questionnaire. The difference between a pre and post measurement indicates a statistical significant development in interpersonal skills of facilitation namely respect, empathy, realness and concreteness; as well as the interpersonal characteristics of awareness, emotional maturity and internal locus of control. Suggestions towards accelerated training of facilitators in South Africa are recommended.