IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/jbrese/v85y2018icp476-483.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Finding the sweet spot between art and business in analogically mediated inquiry

Author

Listed:
  • Meisiek, Stefan
  • Barry, Daved

Abstract

In a longitudinal study, we followed 19 companies that invited artists to help their employees become more innovative. The purpose of the projects was to see if working artistically with a variety of media around organizational concerns could help employees question their habitual ways of seeing, knowing, and acting—i.e., their work epistemes. Following an artist's lead, employees created and interpreted colorful artifacts that functioned as analogs to their workplace and practices. The outcomes varied greatly. In some cases, the analogous artifacts became rich signifiers for collective sensemaking. In other cases, employees were lost in reflection. Comparing the cases, we found that there are “sweet spots” where stakeholders maintained a meaningful and dynamic balance between working artistically and business concerns. With the “sweet spot” concept, our study contributes to the literature on the role of arts-based methods for collective sensemaking, as well as the literature on epistemic objects in organizing.

Suggested Citation

  • Meisiek, Stefan & Barry, Daved, 2018. "Finding the sweet spot between art and business in analogically mediated inquiry," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 85(C), pages 476-483.
  • Handle: RePEc:eee:jbrese:v:85:y:2018:i:c:p:476-483
    DOI: 10.1016/j.jbusres.2017.10.026
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S014829631730406X
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.jbusres.2017.10.026?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Haridimos Tsoukas & Robert Chia, 2002. "On Organizational Becoming: Rethinking Organizational Change," Organization Science, INFORMS, vol. 13(5), pages 567-582, October.
    2. Karl E. Weick, 1998. "Introductory Essay—Improvisation as a Mindset for Organizational Analysis," Organization Science, INFORMS, vol. 9(5), pages 543-555, October.
    3. Meisiek, Stefan & Barry, Daved, 2014. "The science of making management an art," Scandinavian Journal of Management, Elsevier, vol. 30(1), pages 134-141.
    4. Paul R. Carlile, 2002. "A Pragmatic View of Knowledge and Boundaries: Boundary Objects in New Product Development," Organization Science, INFORMS, vol. 13(4), pages 442-455, August.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Sung-Shun Weng & Hung-Chia Chen, 2020. "Exploring the Role of Deep Learning Technology in the Sustainable Development of the Music Production Industry," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(2), pages 1-20, January.
    2. Guillaume Flamand & Véronique Perret & Thierry Picq, 2022. "Working with the potential of arts-based learning : Making sense and leaving ‘business as usual’ behind in an art seminar," Post-Print hal-04325528, HAL.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Beth A. Bechky, 2006. "Gaffers, Gofers, and Grips: Role-Based Coordination in Temporary Organizations," Organization Science, INFORMS, vol. 17(1), pages 3-21, February.
    2. Dean A. Shepherd & Jeffery S. Mcmullen & William Ocasio, 2017. "Is that an opportunity? An attention model of top managers' opportunity beliefs for strategic action," Strategic Management Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 38(3), pages 626-644, March.
    3. Raghu Garud & Arun Kumaraswamy & Peter Karnøe, 2010. "Path Dependence or Path Creation?," Journal of Management Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 47(4), pages 760-774, June.
    4. Luciana D’Adderio, 2014. "The Replication Dilemma Unravelled: How Organizations Enact Multiple Goals in Routine Transfer," Organization Science, INFORMS, vol. 25(5), pages 1325-1350, October.
    5. Verena Komander & Andreas König, 2024. "Organizations on stage: organizational research and the performing arts," Management Review Quarterly, Springer, vol. 74(1), pages 303-352, February.
    6. Eden, Colin & Ackermann, Fran, 2018. "Theory into practice, practice to theory: Action research in method development," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 271(3), pages 1145-1155.
    7. Dvora Yanow & Haridimos Tsoukas, 2009. "What is Reflection‐In‐Action? A Phenomenological Account," Journal of Management Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 46(8), pages 1339-1364, December.
    8. Alexandra Michel, 2014. "The Mutual Constitution of Persons and Organizations: An Ontological Perspective on Organizational Change," Organization Science, INFORMS, vol. 25(4), pages 1082-1110, August.
    9. Paula Jarzabkowski & Sarah Kaplan, 2015. "Strategy tools-in-use: A framework for understanding “technologies of rationality” in practice," Strategic Management Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 36(4), pages 537-558, April.
    10. Kimble, Chris & Grenier, Corinne & Goglio-Primard, Karine, 2010. "Innovation and knowledge sharing across professional boundaries: Political interplay between boundary objects and brokers," International Journal of Information Management, Elsevier, vol. 30(5), pages 437-444.
    11. Robyn Thomas & Leisa D. Sargent & Cynthia Hardy, 2011. "Managing Organizational Change: Negotiating Meaning and Power-Resistance Relations," Organization Science, INFORMS, vol. 22(1), pages 22-41, February.
    12. repec:hal:journl:hal-00714343 is not listed on IDEAS
    13. Lorino, Philippe, 2012. "Management Systems as Organizational "Architextures": The Tacit Narrative Frames of Collective Activity," ESSEC Working Papers WP1208, ESSEC Research Center, ESSEC Business School.
    14. Yukika Awazu & Stefania Mariano & Sue Newell, 2019. "The mediating role of artifacts in position practice at work: Examples from a project-based context," Post-Print hal-02110757, HAL.
    15. Ofer Arazy & Johannes Daxenberger & Hila Lifshitz-Assaf & Oded Nov & Iryna Gurevych, 2016. "Turbulent Stability of Emergent Roles: The Dualistic Nature of Self-Organizing Knowledge Coproduction," Information Systems Research, INFORMS, vol. 27(4), pages 792-812, December.
    16. Philippe Lorino, 2012. "Management Systems as Organizational "Architextures": The Tacit Narrative Frames of Collective Activity," Working Papers hal-00714343, HAL.
    17. Haridimos Tsoukas, 2009. "A Dialogical Approach to the Creation of New Knowledge in Organizations," Organization Science, INFORMS, vol. 20(6), pages 941-957, December.
    18. Serghei Floricel & Sorin Piperca & Richard Tee, 2018. "Strategies for Managing the Structural and Dynamic Consequences of Project Complexity," Complexity, Hindawi, vol. 2018, pages 1-17, May.
    19. Martha S. Feldman & Wanda J. Orlikowski, 2011. "Theorizing Practice and Practicing Theory," Organization Science, INFORMS, vol. 22(5), pages 1240-1253, October.
    20. Martha S. Feldman, 2004. "Resources in Emerging Structures and Processes of Change," Organization Science, INFORMS, vol. 15(3), pages 295-309, June.
    21. Meinel, Martin & Eismann, Tobias T. & Baccarella, Christian V. & Fixson, Sebastian K. & Voigt, Kai-Ingo, 2020. "Does applying design thinking result in better new product concepts than a traditional innovation approach? An experimental comparison study," European Management Journal, Elsevier, vol. 38(4), pages 661-671.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:jbrese:v:85:y:2018:i:c:p:476-483. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/jbusres .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.