Rhetorical and Developmental Analysis of a Computer-Based Corporate Training System: Foucault, Boal, and the Conceptualization of a "Dialogue Training Continuum"

Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University and Club Corporation of America collaborated on a multimedia-training project, Board of Governors: The Cornerstone of a Fine Private Club. This training sought to catalogue all existing support materials and articulate key philosophical and operational systems regarding relationships between Club Managers and the club's Board of Governors, which stands as the leading administrative body for philosophical and operational issues in individual private clubs.

This analysis operates on two levels of investigation: 1) a case study that provides a rhetorical assessment of the development and contents of this training system, 2) based on this appraisal, an introduction of theoretical options regarding the development of training applications. Moreover, the theoretical exhortations of Michel Foucault and Augusto Boal provide a language to encourage a different modus operandi in the field of corporate training.

By articulating the concept of a "dialogue training continuum," this elucidation strives to offer an alternative when rethinking training systems and their encoded discourses. By analyzing local and institutional knowledges and how those knowledges find shape in this project, this analysis argues that establishing a system where end-users may question and reshape the philosophical discourse of the company during the context of training, the overall milieu has the ability to grow and shape-shift through legitimizing and valuing the voices of all organizational constituents.