Business aesthetics

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The aesthetic approach of organizational research (from English Organizational Aesthetics ) is called economic aesthetics .

term

Business aesthetics is understood , among other things, as an interdisciplinary subdiscipline of economics . It is an interdisciplinary research approach that focuses on aesthetic processes in organizations and in business. There are overlaps with research areas such as economics , management , organizational theory, sociology , marketing , communication studies and public relations , cultural management and art and cultural studies.

In international research, “Organizational Aesthetics” has existed for around two decades in the Anglo-American region. Biehl Missal prefers the term “business aesthetics” instead of “organizational aesthetics”. With this consideration, the focus is on aesthetic influences in organizations that extend to the communication of the entire organization with effects on stakeholders such as employees, customers, the public and society. Examples are impressive company buildings, aesthetically pleasing design of products, performative services, the concrete use of art for personnel and organizational development.

Concept history

The field developed from organizational theory, which is one of the foundations of economics and is fundamentally interdisciplinary with its sociological roots. Economic aesthetics extends organizational theories and economic theories to include the aesthetic dimension. The approach is interdisciplinary and combines the existing approaches with social, art and cultural studies disciplines and areas of knowledge such as aesthetics, philosophy, theater, film, architecture, studies of the narrative and the visual. Concepts from the world of art and artistic practice are also used. The approach develops critical perspectives and is characterized by an extension of qualitative and so-called art-based methods in terms of methods.

International research

Linstead and Höpfl, Strati and also Carr and Hancock speak of organizational aesthetics . Works such as the Sage Handbook of Organization Studies contain aesthetic perspectives, and the standard work New Approaches in Management and Organization presents aesthetic approaches as the mainstay of innovative research. The Standing Conference on Organizational Symbolism SCOS and the Art of Management and Organization Conference are considered catalysts .

Germany

A handbook on business aesthetics has already been published in Germany. The department is represented at the Zeppelin University in Friedrichshafen with Martin Tröndle, and at the hdpk in Berlin . Ariane Berthoin Antal at the Berlin Science Center brings new research results on the interplay between business and art and artistic interventions in organizations. In general, the field in German-speaking countries is young and emerging.

Theory of Economic Aesthetics

Economic aesthetics pursues interdisciplinary approaches that establish a so-called “aestheticization” of everyday life and economic life (for example the philosopher Wolfgang Welsch, and theater studies, for example, speak of a “theatricalization” of today's life). Business aesthetics focuses on sensual and emotional perception and their effects on economic activity and thus connects the areas of business and aesthetics.

Aesthetics is not used here in the common use of “beauty”, but rather according to its origins in the philosophical tradition, above all according to Baumgarten, in the sense of physical perception and the sensual feeling it triggers. It is relevant for organizational research that the consequence of this sensory perception is a certain type of knowledge. Aesthetics is therefore seen in organizational research as a knowledge that arises through physical perception such as seeing, hearing, touching, tasting and smelling, and almost inevitably leads to emotional reactions such as joy, anger, disgust, depression and so on. This particular type of aesthetic knowledge differs from intellectual and rational understanding. Research therefore assumes that aesthetics and aesthetic perception have a decisive influence on everyday organizational life and the actions of people inside and outside of organizations. By dealing with aesthetics, economic research hopes to gain knowledge about sensory perception and the associated formation of knowledge, insight and attitudes that influence life in organizations. According to the constructivist perspective, organizations are not seen as an exclusively cognitive construct, but as a structure that consists of the aesthetic and sensual experience of people and the resulting implicit knowledge. The (economic) aesthetic represents an epistemological perspective that enables a sensual, behavioral and meaningful understanding of organizations.

Since aesthetics are difficult to grasp and not easily measurable, and not always generalizable, but often perceived subjectively, it took a while for this approach to establish itself in international organizational research. This critical approach, which does not take “efficiency” but “aesthetics” as the highest criterion, also differs from many conventional and positivist approaches in organizational research. In addition, this critical perspective emphasizes the ambivalence of aesthetic factors that can subjectively fulfill everyday organizational life and make it more efficient, but can also subtly influence and control, also anesthetize and manipulate, organizational participants and stakeholders using aesthetic and emotional means.

Methods of business aesthetics

Business aesthetics examines complex, elusive and physically and emotionally acting aesthetic factors as well as the effect of art in companies. This results in a focus on highly qualitative and so-called art-based methods (including, for example, image and photo-based methods, the use of poetry and sculpture), which particularly stand out from quantitative economic methods. Quantitative methods do not go far enough, because it is about explaining everyday organizational life, which is physically and emotionally experienced, which is difficult to grasp and is therefore often difficult to verbalize, code and quantitatively evaluate - for example in surveys. Interdisciplinary methods are used, which can have their origin in aesthetic theory, for example, or in theater studies and performance studies, which have a special expertise and description tools for the effect of aesthetic situations and the 'aesthetic experience' that is central to economic aesthetics.

Business aesthetics is also establishing new methods not only for collecting data, but also for presenting research results. This includes the processing of knowledge, for example in poetry or as a play (such as the play Ties That Bind by organizational researcher Steven S. Taylor) in order to convey a “feeling” for the examined object and to bring the aesthetic experience to life. The Canadian management researcher Nancy Adler, for example, uses watercolor techniques to depict the possibilities, the “color” and the “floating boundaries” of leadership. Conventional scientific formats such as specialist articles are not capable of this kind of innovative science communication. Thus the use and investigation, the sounding out, of so-called art-based research methods also represent a goal of this research field.

Research fields of business aesthetics

Aesthetic Phenomena

Economic aesthetics examines the aestheticization of economic and social life and thus of course also the perceptible aesthetic characteristics. One example is the architecture of companies, which is often designed and implemented with great effort, and is intended to symbolize and aesthetically communicate the values ​​and demands of companies. The interest in a built identity has grown steadily, and in Germany too, architects are trying to create architectural works of art for companies from all industries that present spatial images, tell stories and create diverse atmospheres. The same applies to the design of products whose value goes beyond their useful or used value and often contains specific aesthetic dimensions and differentiating features.

Nowadays, service processes also differentiate themselves through their immaterial characteristics. It is precisely in this area that the relevance of art metaphors becomes clear: companies are “like theaters” in which employees play their role in front of customers and the public. This area has received a lot of attention from marketing research, for example in the area of services marketing .

Art metaphors

With a change in economic value creation (aestheticization) and changed working models with their own and externally determined demands on “self-realization”, traditional organizational concepts have outlived themselves. Traditionally, images were designed by organizations that evoked a “machine” in which one “cog” engages the other and “levers” have to be pulled.
In order to do justice to changes, research is increasingly using art metaphors: Companies are viewed as “theaters” in which employees play their “role” in front of colleagues and customers. Top managers are also compared to "actors", especially when it comes to requirements and actions in public appearances.
Organizations are also understood as "jazz bands" because they improvise, coordinate and play together.
The well-known management theorist Peter Drucker spoke of the organization as an “orchestra” and the manager “as a conductor”. Martin Tröndle examines as an orchestra as an example for high-performance organizations and transfers knowledge to companies. The metaphors are also widely used, for example Warren Buffett is often quoted as saying: "I am not a business man, I am an artist". This approach to economic aesthetics thus contributes to the debate on the topic of leadership , for example when "management as an art" is viewed and leadership is viewed as a concrete aesthetic phenomenon that is experienced not only rationally but also aesthetically.

The use of art for personnel and organizational development: art-based interventions

The changed demands on work and organizations require skills and commitment on the part of employees, which should be influenced by concrete “art-based interventions” in companies. It's about projects with art that bring products, people and processes from the world of art into companies. There is also the term “art-based learning” for approaches to management development, employee training and the accompaniment of change processes in which art is used as a didactic instrument. Lotte Darsø's Artful Creation , which describes projects and presents interviews and offers an initial overview of artistic work in companies, is regarded as a basic work. Research speaks internationally of "arts-based interventions". In German, “art-based” can be used, because “artistic interventions” are more likely to be associated with artistic resistance than with the strategic and purposeful use of art in companies (see next section).

The art-based interventions include, for example, the now established corporate theater . The use of art in companies is described as a trend of the 21st century, which has developed into a much practiced approach: Art is used strategically in large corporations worldwide, in small companies, in government institutions and in renowned business schools. International competitive pressure and the need for constant change lead to an increasing demand for such offers. So many new art methods have established themselves. Companies hire painters, actors, poets, violinists and jazz musicians for short or long projects with their employees. Managers also make music, interpret poems and play theater in order to develop complex thinking and creative action. Renowned business schools integrate art courses and the next generation of management learns from reading Shakespeare about the use of leadership techniques and also about the depths of leadership. This is not least a consequence of the public criticism of the inadequacies of traditional management training in the field of ethics and communication. The art approaches include, for example, projects in which executives are supposed to bring the company's values ​​ritually into a sculpture, as well as poetry workshops, making music together as a rock band or as part of the company anthem, and art workshops that focus on the traditional art collection go out as a room decoration.

Art-based interventions are associated with high standards and organizations and providers hope to improve individual creative and communicative skills, team skills, corporate reputation and positive effects on organizational change. So far, however, there has been a lack of empirical and large-scale scientific research that examines and critically questions these expectations. This research would be necessary, however, because art-based methods obviously represent potentially effective intervention methods in organizations through their aesthetic address and sensual experience, which can reach, bind, and motivate people emotionally via frontal seminars and PowerPoint presentations - but can also unsettle and manipulate them .

Artistic criticism

Economic aesthetics is not limited to the investigation of aesthetic factors within organizations, but also considers the artistic and social response to the use of "art" in companies: the use of artistic and aesthetic methods in organizations is unsurprisingly echoed by many artists in the Art world. There are artists who refuse to cooperate with organizations - for example as providers of corporate theater or art projects - while others explicitly speak of mutual benefit. Critical artists ask whether art is corrupted when it articulates its criticism within the institution that criticizes it. This development was examined in two special issues of the journal Kunstforum International .
For example, there is the Art Against Corporations initiative, coordinating against Bayer dangers, which denounces various risky aspects of the Bayer corporation, from environmental degradation to child labor. Participating artists are Verena Landau, Nathalie Bertrams, Otto Piene, Peter Royen and Klaus Staeck. There are also performance actions by artists such as Reverend Billy and the Church of Earthaluja, who protested in Starbucks branches against the slowdown of fair trade agreements and the privatization of public spaces. Business aesthetics is also dedicated to this area from outside the organization, because with increasing stakeholder reference and the influence of the public and economic and social responsibility, attempts are made to better understand the environment and to adapt business models.

literature

  • N. Adler: Going beyond the dehydrated language of management: leadership insight. In: Journal of Business Strategy. 31 (4) 2010, pp. 90-99. (Emerald Journal Article)
  • D. Barry, S. Meisiek: Seeing more and seeing differently: sensemaking, mindfulness, and the workarts. In: Organization Studies. 31 (11) 2010, pp. 1505-1153. (Organization Studies)
  • A. Berthoin Antal: Research Report: Research Framework for Evaluating the Effects of Artistic Interventions in Organizations. TILLT Europe, 2009. (PDF)
  • Brigitte Biehl Missal: Business Aesthetics . How companies use art as inspiration and a tool. Gabler, Wiesbaden 2011, ISBN 978-3-8349-2429-2 .
  • L. Boltanski, E. Chiapello: The New Spirit of Capitalism. from the French by G. Elliott. Verso, London 2005, ISBN 1-85984-554-1 .
  • A. Carr, P. Hancock (Eds.): Art and Aesthetics at Work. Palgrave Macmillan, New York 2003, ISBN 0-333-96863-8 .
  • L. Darsø: Artful Creation: Learning-tales of Arts-in-Business. Samfundsliteratur, Copenhagen 2004, ISBN 87-593-1109-6 .
  • P. Gagliardi (Ed.): Symbols and Artifacts: Views of the Corporate Landscape. Aldine de Gruyter, New York 1990, ISBN 0-89925-569-8 .
  • P. Guillet de Monthoux, C. Gustafsson, S.-E. Sjöstrand: Aesthetic Leadership. Managing Fields of Flow in Art and Business. Palgrave Macmillan, Houndsmills 2007, ISBN 978-0-230-51558-1 .
  • M. Hatch: Jazz as a metaphor for organizing in the 21st century. In: Organization Science. 9 (5) 1998, pp. 556-557.
  • I. Mangham, M. Overington: Organizations as Theater: A Social Psychology of Dramatic Appearances . Wiley & Sons, Chichester 1987, ISBN 0-471-90892-4 .
  • D. Ladkin, S. Taylor: Editorial: special issue on leadership as art: variations on a theme. Leadership 6 (3) 2010, pp. 235–241.
  • S. Linstead, H. Höpfl (Ed.): The aesthetics of organization . Sage, London 2000, ISBN 0-7619-5323-X .
  • A. Strati: Organization and Aesthetics . Sage, London 1999, ISBN 0-7619-5239-X .
  • S. Taylor: Ties that bind. In: Management Communication Quarterly. 17 (2) 2003, pp. 280-300. (Management Communication Quarterly)
  • S. Taylor, H. Hansen: Finding form: looking at the field of organizational aesthetics. In: Journal of Management Studies. 42 (6) 2005, pp. 1211-1231.
  • S. Taylor, D. Ladkin: Understanding arts-based methods in managerial development. In: Academy of Management Learning & Education. 8 (1) 2009, pp. 55-69.
  • M. Tröndle: The orchestra as an organization: excellence and culture. In: T. Meynhardt, E. Brunner (Ed.): Managen self-organization. Contribution to the synergetics of the organization. Waxmann, Münster 2005, ISBN 3-8309-1609-4 , pp. 153-170.
  • S. Warren: Empirical challenges in organizational aesthetics research: Towards a sensual methodology. In: Organization Studies. 29 (4) 2008, pp. 559-580.
  • Wolfgang Welsch: Boundaries of Aesthetics. Reclam, Stuttgart 1996, ISBN 3-15-009612-X .

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b B. Biehl Missal: Economic Aesthetics . How companies use art as inspiration and a tool. Gabler, Wiesbaden 2011.
  2. ^ S. Linstead, H. Höpfl: The Aesthetics of Organization. 2000.
  3. ↑ a b A. Strati: Organization and Aesthetics. 1999.
  4. ^ A. Carr, P. Hancock: Art and Aesthetics at Work. 2003.
  5. ^ P. Gagliardi: Exploring the aesthetic side of organizational life. In: S. Clegg u. a. (Ed.): The Sage Handbook of Organization Studies. 22nd edition. Sage, London 2006, ISBN 0-7619-4996-8 , pp. 701-724.
  6. ↑ D. Barry, H. Hansen (Eds.): The Sage Handbook of New Approaches in Management and Organization. Sage, London 2008, ISBN 978-1-412-91219-8 .
  7. ^ Art of Management and Organization Conference. ( Memento from June 16, 2012 in the Internet Archive )
  8. ↑ Artistic Interventions in Organizations, with Dr. Anke Strauss
  9. ^ W. Welsch: Boundaries of aesthetics. Reclam, Stuttgart 1996.
  10. ↑ B. Biehl: Business is show business. How top managers stage themselves in front of an audience. Campus, Frankfurt a. M. 2007.
  11. ↑ Dagmar Mirbach (ed.); A. Baumgarten: Aesthetics. 2 vols. Latin-German. Felix Meiner, Hamburg 2007. (Philosophical Library)
  12. ^ A b S. Taylor, H. Hansen: Finding form: looking at the field of organizational aesthetics. In: Journal of Management Studies. 42 (6) 2005, p. 1216.
  13. ^ A. Strati: The aesthetic approach to organization studies. In: H. Höpfl, S. Linsteadt (Ed.): The Aesthetics of Organization. Sage, London 2000, pp. 13-34.
  14. ^ S. Taylor, H. Hansen: Finding form. 2005.
  15. ^ A. Strati: Aesthetics in the study of organizational life. In: D. Barry, H. Hansen (Eds.): The Sage Handbook of New Approaches in Management and Organization. Sage, London 2008, pp. 229-238.
  16. ^ S. Warren, A. Rehn: special issue on oppression, art and aesthetics. In: Consumption Markets & Culture. 9 (2) 2006, pp. 81-85.
  17. ↑ S. Warren: Empirical challenges in organizational aesthetics research: Towards a sensual methodology. In: Organization Studies 29 (4) 2008, pp. 559-580.
  18. ↑ S. Taylor: Ties that bind. In: Management Communication Quarterly. 17 (2) 2003, pp. 280-300.
  19. ^ N. Adler: Going beyond the dehydrated language of management: leadership insight. In: Journal of Business Strategy. 31 (4) 2010, pp. 90-99.
  20. ↑ S. Taylor, D. Ladkin: Understanding arts-based methods in managerial development. In: Academy of Management Learning & Education. 8 (1) 2009, pp. 55-69.
  21. ^ P. Gagliardi (Ed.): Symbols and Artifacts: Views of the Corporate Landscape. Aldine de Gruyter, New York 1990.
  22. ↑ B. Biehl Missal: Architecture as a communication tool. How companies influence attitudes and behavior through aesthetic means. In: G. Bentele, M. Piwinger, G. Schönborn (Eds.): Communication management. , Loose leaf Neuwied 2001 ff. 8.45 2011, pp. 1–22.
  23. ↑ R. Austin: High margins and the quest for aesthetic coherence. In: Harvard Business Review. Jan. 2008, p. 19.
  24. ↑ L. Boltanski, E. Chiapello: The New Spirit of Capitalism. 2005.
  25. ↑ I. Mangham, M. Overington: Organizations as Theater: A Social Psychology of Dramatic Appearances . Wiley & Sons, Chichester 1987.
  26. ^ B. Biehl Missal: Business is Show Business. Management Presentations as Performance. In: Journal of Management Studies. 48, 3 2011, pp. 619-645. (abstract)
  27. ^ M. Hatch: Jazz as a metaphor for organizing in the 21st century. In: Organization Science. 9 (5) 1998, pp. 556-557.
  28. ^ M. Tröndle: The orchestra as organization: Excellence and culture. In: T. Meynhardt, E. Brunner (Ed.): Managen self-organization. Contribution to the synergetics of the organization. Waxmann, Münster 2005, pp. 153-170.
  29. ^ N. Adler: Going beyond the dehydrated ... 2010.
  30. ↑ D. Ladkin, S. Taylor: Editorial: special issue on leadership as art: variations on a theme. In: Leadership 6 (3) 2010, pp. 235–241.
  31. ↑ P. Guillet de Monthoux, C. Gustafsson, S.-E. Sjöstrand: Aesthetic Leadership. Managing Fields of Flow in Art and Business. Palgrave Macmillan, Houndsmills 2007.
  32. ↑ A. Berthoin Antal: Research Report: Research Framework ... in 2009.
  33. ↑ L. Darsø: Artful Creation: Learning tales of Arts-in-Business. Samfundsliteratur, Copenhagen 2004.
  34. ↑ D. Barry, S. Meisiek: Seeing more and seeing differently: sense making, mindfulness, and the workarts. In: Organization Studies. 31 (11) 2010, pp. 1505-1153.
  35. ↑ B. Biehl Missal: Business Aesthetics . How companies make art ... 2011, p. 93.
  36. ^ N. Adler: The art of leadership: now that we can do anything, what will we do ?. In: Academy of Management Learning and Education Journal. 5 (4) 2006, pp. 486-499.
  37. ↑ Augustine, N. & Adelman, K. (1999) Shakespeare in Charge: The Bard's Guide to Leading and Succeeding on the Business Stage. New York: Hyperion
  38. ↑ For an overview see Biehl Missal: Wirtschaftsästhetik. How companies make art ... 2011: pp. 91–153.
  39. ↑ B. Biehl Missal: Business Aesthetics . How companies create art ... 2011, p. 157 ff.
  40. ↑ Volumes 200 and 201 (2010)

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