Department of Management and International Business Research Working Paper Series

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https://mro.massey.ac.nz/handle/10179/626

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Browsing Department of Management and International Business Research Working Paper Series by Author "Bathurst, Ralph"

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    The genesis of organisational aesthetics
    (Massey University. Department of Management and International Business, 2006) Bathurst, Ralph
    Organisational aesthetics is a burgeoning field with a growing community of scholars engaged in arts-based approaches to research. Recent developments in this field have their origins in the works of early Enlightenment writers such as Vico, Baumgarten and Kant. This paper examines the contributions of these three philosophers and in particular focuses on Vico’s awareness of history and myth; Baumgarten’s notion of sensation and its relationship to rationality; and Kant’s investigations into form and content. By drawing on these ideas, the contemporary aesthetic researcher is informed by qualities such as an alert imagination, comfort with the chaotic, backward thinking, and attention to inner sensations and perceptions, which all work together to provide a coherent view of the organisation as a gestalt.
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    Irony's architecture: Reflections on a photographic research project
    (Massey University. Department of Management and International Business, 2007) Sayers, Janet; Bathurst, Ralph; Symonds, Henry
    This paper presents a research approach based on irony, rather than certainty. Using Richard Rorty's conception of irony, we contend that much traditional research in management presents a final language which is implicit in both the construction of a research method and its final presentation as findings. This paper suggests we should take irony more seriously, and deliberately construct research to allow and encourage re-description by our research's final arbiters - its readers, and even its subjects. Further, we advocate that by inviting irony into our work, we encourage greater identification between ourselves, our audience of readers, and the subjects of our work. We illustrate our argument by reflecting on a recent photographic research project which was a collaborative effort between management researchers and an artist. We show how the simple architecture of this project was built from doubt and how irony is communicated through the pictures. We then show how photography can be a useful technique that encourages readers to engage in re-description of petit récits (small stories), told through images. We discuss our reflections by focusing on the implications of our research for management education.
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    The music of organising: Exploring aesthetic ethnography
    (Massey University. Department of Management and International Business, 2006) Bathurst, Ralph
    Through a discussion of Ingarden’s phenomenology, this paper proposes an aesthetic ethnographic methodology. Aesthetic ethnography enables the researcher to view organisations as if they are works of art. This involves observing the continual oscillation between order and chaos, a quality Schiller terms as the play impulse. The shifts in focus from naïve outsider (Emotional Attachment) to critical insider (Cognitive Detachment) and then to informed outsider (Integrated Synthesis) are explored, followed by a case study of a symphony orchestra undergoing governance change.
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    Re-conceiving management education: Artful teaching and learning
    (Massey University. Department of Management and International Business, 2007) Bathurst, Ralph; Sayers, Janet; Monin, Nanette
    Artists derive inspiration from daily life. According to John Dewey, common experiences are transformed into works of art through a process of compression and expression. In this paper we adopt this frame, showing how it is used within the pedagogical environment. Students were asked to reflect on their lives and offer an artful response to those experiences. Artfulness is defined here as a process which relies on the discursive practices of satire, and in particular irony and parody. We demonstrate the use of these rhetorical techniques as reflective tools, offering a service management class as an exemplar. In this class students were asked to consider their common experiences as both customers and service providers, and create an ironic artefact. We analyse a cartoon sequence produced by students in response to this assignment, where they parodied the fast-food service experience, illustrating how a business studies classroom can be transformed into an artful space.
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    A tiger by the tail: The artistry of crisis management
    (Massey University. Department of Management and International Business, 2007) Bathurst, Ralph
    This paper explores the reasons for the failure of local and national leaders to adequately deal with the crisis that resulted from Hurricane Katrina September 2005. It is argued that the failure of instrumentality demonstrates alternative management strategies are required. The aesthetic lens offers options that could have helped avoid many of the disastrous consequences of the flooding.