Developing an Arts Based Curriculum for HRD Practice
Andrew Armitage
Lord Ashcroft International Business School, Anglia Ruskin University
Email: andrew.armitage@anglia.ac.uk
Diane Keeble-Ramsay
Lord Ashcroft International Business School, Anglia Ruskin University
Email: diane.keeble-allen@anglia.ac.uk
Developing an Arts Based Curriculum for HRD Practice
Andrew Armitage and Diane Keeble-Ramsay
Abstract
Purpose:
Sullivan (2005:215) notes ‘Responding to information in an insightful fashion through
constructive dialogue means that private views need to enter into public discourse, for it is
within the interpretive community of the field that alternative visions are most keenly felt’.
Linstead (2000:84) has noted that, ‘across the social sciences, few attempts to radicalise the
forms in which social investigation finds its expression have been attempted outside of social
anthropology’. Bolton (2001) has also noted that expressive forms of reporting organisational
reality, such as storytelling, and poetry are still under theorised, notably within the field of
Human Resource Development curriculum design and pedagogy. The study attempts to
remedy by this by addressing the question how are HRD professionals’ organisational
experiences constructed and appraised through their emotional responses?
Design/Methodology Approach:
This paper, through the lens of arts based methods, asks how HRD professionals experience
and perceive their working lives. It considers the emotional responses to their organisational
roles and tensions faced. This was achieved by attempting to access their perceptive ‘reality’
through the representation, and medium of, arts based approaches. The of dialogue groups
founded upon the critical pedagogy of Paulo Freire were used to help the professionals
conceptualise their organisation through the arts based approaches, for example, poem
houses, poetry, drawings, paintings or narrative fiction they engaged with.
Findings: The study explored the relationship that individuals have with the organisation
which might be represented through their creation of products, drawings, poetry and
narratives which
Research and Practical Implications: The paper seeks to represent the use of arts based
instruments (ABIs) for the purposes of developing a pedagogy which allows teachers or
researchers to consider other ways of developing understanding of responses to
organisational settings.
Originality: The study seeks to combine a variety of ABIs in the consideration of the
organisational realities perceived by participants which has not been addressed through this
range of ABIs.
Limitations: The study is limited to the participants selected and does not attempt to provide
generalizability but to gain insights through the consideration of the development of
curriculum by addressing emotional responses.
Key Words: Arts Based Curriculum, CHRDE, Freire
Introduction
In his book The Value of Arts for Business, Giovanni Schima poses the following questions:
what is the value of arts in business? What is the role of the arts in management? How can
the arts contribute to develop organisations to boost business performance? Why do
organisations need to absorb the arts in their working mechanisms and business models?
(Schima, 2011: xv). There has been a growing interest in arts based management education
in recent years. This is exemplified with the Art of Management and Organisation biannual
conference, which brings together and bridges the gap between business, the arts, creativity,
and academia, and sets out an alternative perspective for researching, managing, and
engaging with business and organisational life where creativity and innovation play a central
part for business success.
Gibb (2006:166) notes that people development ‘is not about the science of skills
development in isolation, but about how to think about people and their potential’, this
arguably is the challenge now facing contemporary target setting and managerialist
organisations. Kerr and Lloyd (2008:489) quite righty ask ‘Therefore what can be done to
educate management to nurture and support the creative human potential and resilience of
their employees?’ In answer to their own question they suggest management education needs
to facilitate leaders who can promote and support employee creativity by setting creativity
goals, and investing in arts based transformative learning programs, as well as becoming
learning leaders (see also, Buchen 2005; Zhou 2007). This they argue can only happen ‘if
those in leadership roles are in touch with their own creative capabilities’ (489) because ‘...
the very essence of 21st Century leadership increasingly demands the passionate creativity of
artists ...’ (Adler 2006:493–494).
In terms of the design of learning practices, leadership development requires reconsideration.
As Nissley (2008:22) states, ‘[t]oday’s leaders must leverage the creative energy of the
workforce to compete in the creative economy [and we need to think] creatively about how
we develop creative leaders and creative leadership in organizations.’
Oakley (2007:11)
notes ‘there is no agreed definition of creativity’ among educational policymakers,
academics, teachers or employers’. However, Kerr and Lloyd (2007:485) in the context of
their work define creativity as ‘the creative human attributes and qualities concerned with
imagination, inventiveness, improvisation, insight, intuition, and curiosity – the natural
‘artful’ genius and talent of people’. They go on to state that that these creative capabilities
‘are sought after by business for long-term’ and suggest that ‘management education must
follow suit in providing artful learning experiences to assist with developing creative habits.
The transformative potential of arts-informed research speaks to the need to develop
representations that address audiences in ways that do not pacify or indulge the senses but
arouse them and the intellect to new heights of response and action. The educative
possibilities of art-informed work are foremost in the heart, soul, and mind of the researcher
from the onset of an inquiry.
Goleman (1998:100) has suggested that ‘the art of innovation is both cognitive and
emotional. Coming up with a creative insight is a cognitive act – but realising its value,
nurturing it, and following through calls on emotional competencies such as self-confidence,
initiative, persistence, and the ability to persuade’. This is important not only for individual
development but also organisational competiveness, as Zhou (2007:17) notes ‘to stay
competitive….organizations are required to encourage all of their employees to be creative,
not just those who hold traditionally “creative types” of jobs’. Thus, learning opportunities
enabling expanded awareness, adaptability, resilience, resourcefulness and play are
imperative for management educators and business organisations in the 21 st Century (Claxton
1999 cited in Kerr and Lloyd, 2008:489).
Following on, the desired presence of innovation requires organisations to provide a culture
that both supports and invests in developing creativity and provides appropriate resources for
that to happen’. These sentiments are echoed by Schima (2011:1-2) by stating that ‘In today’s
complex business landscape, as organisations are challenged by new and increasingly
complex problems, the arts provided a new “territory” to inspire executives both to see their
organisations differently and to define innovative management systems’.
The value of
researching art-based modes towards development then is twofold. Firstly, to explore the
experiences of human resource development (HRD) professionals and contemporary
organisation life using art based methods to unlock the hidden realities or potentially silent
cultures of the organisation (see for example, Armitage and Keeble-Allen, 2010; Armitage
2011 and 2012).
Secondly, as a way to engage professionals differently within their professional and
organisational lives, to propose pedagogical approaches and the design of HRD curriculum
delivery using art based methods. It is intended that this might facilitate better understanding
in terms how employees respond to their daily situations, problems and dilemmas in the
workplace more critically though the engaging with arts based approaches.
Problem Statement
Bolton (2001) has noted that notably within the field of Human Resource Development
curriculum design and pedagogy, expressive forms of reporting organisational reality, such as
storytelling, and poetry are still under theorised.
The study attempts to remedy by this by
asking the question:
How are HRD professionals’ organisational experiences constructed or appraised in terms of
leading to their emotional responses?
This study aimed to explore HRD professionals’ experiences through their perceptions of
their working lives. Through the lens of art based methods, its objectives include:
1) To understand how HRD professionals emotionally appraise experiences within their
organisational lives.
2) To conceptualise the organisation through the representation and medium of arts
based approaches, for example, utilising poem houses, poetry, drawings, paintings,
narrative fiction, and the use of dialogue groups will be adopted to allow them to
access their ‘realities’.
Further this provides a medium by which we can capture emotional responses. This approach
is founded upon the critical pedagogy of Paulo Freire (1970, 1972).
Arts Based Education as a Transformative Pedagogy
Paulo Freire (1998) notes teaching requires a recognition that education is ideological,
involves ethics, a capacity to be critical and also to recognise our conditioning, humility and
abilities for critical reflection. This challenges educational practices which challenge what it
means to be “critical” and how new principles of a pedagogy that counters modernism might
be constructed. This might not be an easy task. As Grey (2005:62) notes, “the context for the
development of management education was very much that of the emergence of complex,
large-scale industry, and, associated with that, the growing separation of ownership and
control”. Currently textbooks, case studies and classroom simulations dominate business
pedagogic practices. This has resulted in a “contract of cynicism where faculties deliver and
students accept knowledge which, both know to be virtually useless” (Grey, 2005:64).
This might suggest that if critical management education (CME) or critical HRD education
(CHRDE) are to challenge powerful historical organisational or cultural discourse then it has
to review its pedagogic project, which are located within political, social, and cultural
contexts. This concern was described by Greene (1978:12) claiming that discovery had been
taken out of learning in many teaching/learning situations by noting that, “The self as
participant, as inquirer, as creator of meanings has been obliterated”. These sentiments are
articulated by Margaret Macintyre Latta (2004:94-95) in her essay Traces, Patterns, Texture:
In Search of Aesthetic Teaching/Learning Encounters where she states “Rather than
conformity, being rewarded, in [these] classrooms, difference is not cause for alarm but
celebration”.
The need for creativity and innovation has been identified as being central (see, for example,
Davila, Epstein and Shelton 2007; Florida, 2002; Gibb, 2006; Hartley 2005). Kerr and Lloyd
(2008: 487) note that this is a consequence of the growing recognition from business and
government globally that creativity, innovation and a more creative workforce are necessary
for the competitiveness of organisations in the global economy. An alliance between arts,
organisational aesthetics, and disciplines such as management, leadership, and human
development has also emerged as areas of research (see, for example, Cummings, 2000;
Linstead and Höpfl, 2000; Strati 2000; Armitage, 2014; Darsø 2004).
In her book Artful
Creation: Learning-Tales of Arts-in-Business Lotte Darsø (2002:43) identifies behaviours
and competencies that reflect instrumental (improved performance) benefits from arts-based
learning.
For example:
‘… certain artistic capabilities [which] are important for business and can be taught
by artists, such as presentation and communication skills, listening skills and
storytelling. The same goes for team building and collaboration inspired by ensemble
and rehearsal techniques, as these are used by musicians and actors. A variety of
business people, from managers to human resource consultants, can benefit from
these approaches.’
Oakley (2007) advances the benefits of arts in education for a creative workforce,
emphasising ‘the need to develop communication, leadership, entrepreneurship, team work,
creative skills, cross-cultural understanding, problem solving, emotional intelligence and
right-brain stuff’ (Kerr and Lloyd, 2008:488). She notes that a focus by economic policy
makers across the world on things ‘creative’ is driven by factors such as creative inputs in
innovation policy, a need for new ways of working, and a changing contemporary workplace
(Oakley 2007 cited in Kerr and Lloyd, 2008:6). As Kerr and Lloyd (2008:487) note ‘Given
these needs, the exposure to learning in and through the arts offers a broad, hands-on
approach to management development, with the arts providing alternative ways of seeing,
thinking, intrinsic benefits that help discover, for example, other ways of thinking than the
taken-for-granted’. This they claim has ‘benefits, for example, such as captivation, pleasure,
expanded, capacity for empathy, cognitive growth, creation of social bonds, and expression
of communal meanings are not only of intrinsic value to the individual but extend to the
public realm … and community cohesiveness’ (487) (see also, McCarthy, Ondaatje, Zakara
and Brooks 2004).
These learning benefits are ‘derived through development of intrinsic (self-enriching)
motivation and are supported in transformative learning processes, such as are found in artsbased learning (Kerr and Lloyd, 2008:7). This has been exacerbated by the competitive
challenges of the new business landscape and importance of adopting innovative means to
train and develop mangers and leaders (Adler, 2010). This view has been witnessed by
several arts based initiatives in curriculum designing and delivery and according to Schiuma
(2011:132) who provides several such example, ‘The inte.g.ration on arts-based learning
processes in business schools’ curricula is gradually spreading’.
It can be argued that pedagogy involves the relationship between student and teacher, the
learning context, and learning process (Bonk and Smith, 1997; Waters, 2005). This is
important to any critical pedagogy but more specifically for authentic educational discourse
that informs professional and workplace practice, the structuring of opportunities to facilitate
participation and change (Freire, 1987; Freire and Faundez, 1989; Tadeu de Silva and
McLaren, 1996; Billet, 2001; Moore. 2004). Further, Hughes and Moore (1999:3-4) suggest
that ‘pedagogy can be discovered in any social context where knowledge is distributed and
used’. Critical pedagogy is more than just superficial contact with “others” and the “what is”
that confronts individuals in their daily lives and establishes a relationship of respect, honesty
and trust between teachers and students, employer and employee, provider and client,
institutions and society (Freire 1972; Freire and Faundez, 1989). It is engagement with the
world. It is the humanising of debate that gives the process its value as an instrument for
beneficial change.
Freire (1970 and 1972) defined a critical pedagogy as the contextualisation within society,
organisations, and history (Lodh and Gaffikin, 1997) in the recognition that this is a human,
not a scientific, endeavour (Arrington and Puxty, 1991 and Francis, 1990). This has led some
to advocate dialogue as the means for the creation of democratic, emancipatory, and
transformative practices within the sphere of pedagogy and communication between
individuals and groups (see for example Boal, 1974; Freire, 1970; Bohm, 1996; Isaacs, 1999;
Hermans, 2001; Giroux, 1997; Archer, 2003). For Freire (1970), transformation is central to
emancipatory practices. It is central to an individual’s awareness that they ‘exist in and with
the world’ (Freire, 1972:51) being, but knowing, subjects who have an engagement of social,
historical, political and cultural (Giroux, 1997). Freire (1972:51) coined the word
conscientization to capture this concept as ‘conscious beings that men are not only in the
world but with the world, together with other men’. For transformative practices to become
reality, Freire puts dialogue at the centre of human encounters such as learning and problem
solving processes, advocating that it can only be achieved if those involved are exposed to
emancipatory practices that nullify powerful discourses (see also Senge, 1990; Schein, 1993;
Giroux; Isaacs, 1999; Oswick et al, 2008). This can only be achieved according to Boal
(1974:xvi) by the awakening of individual freedom within the context of social-politicaleconomic situations and as a challenge to the ‘given’ dominating orthodoxies of those who
occupy positions of power and control and manipulate those with less power.
Kerr and Lloyd (2008:488) claim that transformative learning is an adult learning process
where, based on new knowledge and values, beliefs are critically examined. The learner
changes their frame of reference as they re-interpret their world’ (Mezirow 1997:6). Imel
(1998:1) adds to Mezirow’s understanding by indicating that transformative learning involves
becoming more reflective and critical, being more open to perspectives of others, and being
less defensive and more accepting of new ideas. Kerr and Lloyd (2008: 488) note that ‘While
critical reflection is Mezirow’s reference point, a view of transformative learning as an
‘intuitive, creative, emotional process’ has also emerged’ (see, for example, Grabov 1997:
90).
Two views of transformative learning exist - on the one hand, as a rational approach to critical
reflection.
On the other hand, as one advancing the use of imagination and emotion.
However, both use rational processes and incorporate imagination as a part of a creative
process by sharing a number of commonalities including ‘humanism, emancipation,
autonomy, critical reflection, equity, self-knowledge, participation, communication and
discourse’ (Grabov 1997: 90). By focusing upon what the individual values, and needs to
learn, ‘transformative learning can assist the learning development of arts-based creativity and
change so long as those learning needs are defined by both the learner and the educator, or the
employee and the employer’ (Kerr and Lloyd, 2008:488).
Also they are based on
consideration of generational, cultural, and gender belief systems and values (Kerr and
Waterhouse, 2008).
Gratton (2007) advances that Arts Based Intervention (ABI) can have a transformational
impact and represents the way managers can ignite organisational energy.
Schiuma
(2011:107) notes ‘Accordingly, ABI’s can be deployed as management means to catalyse and
nourish people’s emotions and energy’. This can be done in basic ways.
By igniting
emotions and energy by framing questions ‘that propel people into the unknown, stimulating
their imagination an pushing them to look for new solutions and different ways of framing
reality’ (Schiuma, 2011:107). For example, past, present and future situations that drive ‘the
interpretation and construction of knowledge, which allows inward and outward assessment’
(ibid). ABI’s can galvanise people towards a vision. For example, establishing what the
future might be can propel ‘collective emotions and energy towards the same trajectory’
(Schiuma, 2011:107).
Ignition contexts shape the organisational environment to enable
people to feel assured, experience pleasure and attachment and they spark people’s emotional
and energetic dynamics. Ignition conversations allow ABI’s to stimulate exchanges and ‘rich
communication’ (Schiuma, 2011:108). Finally, ABI’s can be used as a forum for people to get
to know each other, thus allowing trust and reciprocity to flourish (ibid).
This allows students to ‘learn how to use their senses in order to better grasp things that are
happening around them, as well as to react to them by being immersed in artistic creative
processes’ according to Schiuma (2011:132-133). This leads them to develop creative skills,
and confidence in their ability to ‘express themselves creatively, have a willingness to accept
and deal with ambiguity and uncertainty, an openness to reframe problems, solutions and
scenarios, and develop trust in themselves in their potential creativity (Schiuma, 2011). This
has also been advocated by Armitage (2012) who has proposed that management educators
need to develop alternative pedagogical approaches to explore the realities of organisational
life. Armitage (2012) uses Sullivan’s (2005) “Visual Knowing” and dialogue as being central
to “know the world”.
Artwork has been used to unpack historical issues and metaphors (Kent, 2003), and to ‘tease
out possibilities, demolish preconceptions, disrupt complacencies, challenge decision making,
and find creative comfort among incongruities’ (Sullivan, 2005:197). It can therefore be
argued that all human activity can be described as an artistic endeavour (Boal, 1974), where
individuals construct their realities, shape ideas, and actions, for example through the
representative media of drawings, and imagery that are part of a broader system of cultural
forms that play an active role in socio, political, and political processes (Mitchell, 1994).
Furthermore, Greene (2003: 22-23) identifies that imagination is the place where the possible
can happen, a place of ‘resisting fixities, seeking the openings [where] we relish
incompleteness, because that signifies that something still lies ahead’. Imagination as Green
reminds us, this is where completion is found in the sense that we come to know things we
did not know of, or conceive of before, it is a place of creating our reality in to different
forms, where different shapes of reality are moulded in the face of new imagery. As such,
imagination, whilst the place of completeness, is also the place of new beginnings, where the
world can be “re-oralised” as it unfolds other realities, new places of completeness, and new
beginnings.
Kearney and Hyle (2003) have as a part of a larger study examined the emotional impact of
change on individuals using participant-produced drawings in an educational institution. Both
the participants’ and the researcher’s perspectives on the drawing methodology, as used in
their study, provided the foundation for their findings. They concluded that drawings create a
path toward emotions; lead to a more succinct representation of participant experiences;
require additional verbal interpretation by the participant for accuracy; are unpredictable as a
tool for encouraging participation in the research; combat researcher biases when left
unstructured; can be affected by the amount of researcher-imposed structure in the scope of
how they could be interpreted and help to create triangulation of study data. According to
Kearney and Hyle (2003) ‘in organizations, drawings have traditionally been used to depict
mechanical designs or conceptual models, to portray organizational structure, and to
communicate information to colleagues’. Whilst these they claim are exceptions, the use of
drawings to depict organizations can be traced back to Meyers, who used diagramming as a
part of an organizational adaptation study in the medical field (Miles and Snow, 1978).
Meyers’ work is one of the earlier examples of the use of drawings and diagrams as a part of
organizational research.
This has been subsequently being adopted as a research methodology by others (see, for
example, Nyquist et al, 1999; MacLure, 2002; Meyer, 1991; Trower et al, 2001; Zubroff,
1988). This approach has also been used to draw out emotional responses to organizational
settings (see, for example, Vince, 1995; Vince and Broussine, 1996). As Kearney and Hyle
(2003) note drawings may also be a more specific or direct route to the emotions and
unconscious responses underlying behaviours during change (Vince, 1995), where ‘imagery
can “bridge the gap between the apparently individual, private, subjective, and the apparently
collective, social, political” (Samuels, 1993: 63). In a previous study Zubroff (1988) found
that, for clerical workers experiencing organizational change, that ‘pictures functioned as a
catalyst, helping them to articulate feelings that had been implicit and hard to define….
These simple drawings convey feelings that often elude verbal expression” (Zuboff, 1988:
141-142).
Furthermore, poetry and its use in the workplace has also seen a growing interest in recent
years. Poetry has been used as a way to help those who work in organisational settings to
explore and tell their stories through consciousness raising accounts. It is furthered that these
speak directly to individuals or that through the works of others enables people to make sense
of their own particular situations (Armitage, 2014). Poetry does not rely upon the strictures
and formal structures of conventional literary work and storytelling. Those who write, or
read poetry, engage with the world in a way that allows their voice to be heard as an
“authentic self”. This allows metaphor, and memories to be explored so that individuals
might come to terms with their situated reality. This can only be spoken through the private
and particular language of poetry.
Poetry provides a mode for individuals to confront
complex environments by reducing their complexity into understandable approaches. It helps
to facilitate a sense of empathy and understanding of, within the world, to develop the self.
Also by creating a space for individuals to express the unsayable, it offers an alternative voice
to the dominant organizational discourse (Armitage, 2014).
As David and McIntosh
(2004:84) note “Poetry is too important to be left to poets. It would be much better if it
belonged to everyone, producers and consumers alike. In work and in business, poetry could
be a powerful tool for deepening reason and logic through the use of emotion and
imagination”.
Clare Morgan (2010), in her book What Poetry Brings to Business, explores the deep but
unexpected connections between business and poetry. Morgan (2010) demonstrates how the
creative energy, emotional power and the communicative complexity of poetry relate directly
to the practical need for innovation and problem solving that confronts business managers.
She shows how poetry might unpack complexity and flexibility of thinking, to better
understand the thoughts and feelings of others. She argues this not only aids the creative
process but it can help facilitate the entrepreneurial culture of an organisation by developing
imaginative solutions, and help better understand chaotic environments (see, for example,
Davis and McIntosh, 2004; Darmer and Grisoni, 2011). Poetry as an aesthetic conscious
state of existence provides a mode of engagement for the imagination to play where the
senses meet the external world.
Poetry allows aesthetic playfulness where the silence of our inner conscious feelings can be
broken, where ‘Poets align themselves with the wretched and the voiceless of the planet’
(Okri, 1997:13). It is claimed that rather than the constraints of objective reality, poets see
things through sensuous experience. Poetry provides sense of a freedom to ‘express the
inexpressible’ and ‘to utter the unspoken’ founded from experiences encapsulated within the
boundaries of organisational structures, rules and regulations (see, for example, Davis and
McIntosh, 2004).
Leavy (2009:63) reminds that poems are ‘Sensory scenes created with
skilfully placed words and purposeful pauses, poems push feelings to the forefront capturing
heightened moments of social reality as if under a magnifying glass’. It has the ability to
provide insights through metaphor and linguistic negotiation. As a literary text, poetry
presents an individual’s experiences through the self-referential use of language that creates a
new understanding of the world, thought or feelings. This provides an aesthetic process of
cognitive and emotional insight (Hanauer, 2004; Leggo, 2008).
Sullivan (2005:215) notes ‘Responding to information in an insightful fashion through
constructive dialogue means that private views need to enter into public discourse, for it is
within the interpretive community of the field that alternative visions are most keenly felt’.
Linstead (2000:84) has noted further that, ‘across the social sciences, few attempts to
radicalise the forms in which social investigation finds its expression have been attempted
outside of social anthropology’.
Philosophical and Methodological underpinnings
Arts based research, whether in process or its representational form, is neither prescriptive
not codified. It is the coming to together of scholarly and artistic endeavour. This does not
mean that art biased research escapes the rigour and scrutiny of critical assessment expected
from traditional research methodologies and data collection methods.
Our work was
underpinned by what Cole and Knowles (2008) call ‘qualities of goodness’, of intentionality,
researcher presence, aesthetic quality, methodological commitment, holistic quality,
commutability, knowledge advancement, and contributions (Cole and Knowles, 2008:66).
Intentionality is where arts based research must stand for something; they are ‘not intended as
titillations but as opportunities for transformation, revelation, or some other intellectual and
moral shift. They must be more than good stories, images, or performances’.
Researcher presence is where the researcher is present through their explicit reflexive selfaccounting. Aesthetic quality is concerned with the central purpose of arts-based research
being knowledge advancement. This is not the production of fine arts. The quality of the
artistic elements of an arts-informed research project is defined by how well the artistic
process and form serves research goals. Methodological commitment is arts informed
research that evidences the attention to the defining elements and form of arts informed
research. The work reflects a methodological commitment through evidence of a principled
process, procedural harmony, and attention to aesthetic quality. This is exemplified by Coles
and Knowles (2008:66), who cite McIntyre and Cole (2006) and their work about caregivers
and Alzheimers Disease. McIntyre and Cole (2006) note that ‘Working with data to identify
substantive themes related to the research purpose to preserve the integrity of the honour of
the caregivers’ experiences, the form of representation needs to remain true to the narrative
and emotive quality of what people contributed’. ‘Holistic quality’ challenges conventional
research endeavours that tend to more linear, sequential, compartmentalized and distanced
from researcher and participants (Cole and Knowles, 2008:66-67). A rigorous arts-informed
“text” is imbued with an ‘internal consistency and coherence that represents a strong and
seamless relationship between purpose and method’ (ibid).
This entails that student-
researchers are ‘information gatherers, portraiture artists, and interpreters of experience’
(Coles and Knowles, 2008:67), where ‘students’ creations made up of personal narratives,
photographs, memory maps, and found objects, became at once “data” and representations
indicative of the inquiry focus’ (ibid).
Communicability concerns the transformative potential of the research that ‘maximizes its
communicative potential, addresses concerns about accessibility of the research account
usually through the form and language in which it is written, performed, or otherwise
presented’ (Coles and Knowles, 2008).
According to Coles and Knowles (2008:67)
‘Accessibility is related to the potential for audience engagement and response [and] have the
express purpose of connecting, in holistic way, with the hearts, souls, and minds of the
audience. They are intended to have an evocative quality and a level of resonance for diverse
audiences’.
Knowledge advancement is generative rather than propositional and is based on assumptions
that reflect the multidimensional, complex, dynamic, intersubjective, and contextual nature of
human experience’ (Coles and Knowles, 2008: 67). Claims to knowledge must be made with
‘sufficient ambiguity and humility to allow for multiple interpretations and reader response’
(ibid). The contribution is wedded to the intellectual and moral purposes of arts-informed
research of theoretical and practical contributions. As Cole and Knowles (2008:67) note
‘Sound and rigorous arts-informed work has both theoretical potential and transformative
potential. The former acknowledges the ‘So what?’ question and the power of the inquiry
work to provide insights into the human condition, while the latter urges researchers to
imagine new possibilities for whom the work is about and for’.
In response to the foregoing, this study brought together the methodological traditions of
Paulo Freire’s Participant Action Research (PAR) and his concept of Conscientization (1970,
1972, 1974, 1998), with arts based data collection methods. This builds upon previous and
existing work, and classroom practice of Armitage (2011 and 2012) and Armitage and
Keeble-Allen (2010) who have explored
and used arts based methods within in the
disciplinary confines of HRD.
Participants to this study were drawn from the private and public sectors including small to
medium enterprises (SME’s) and large organisations. In order to explore and articulate the
possibility of tensions between organisational expectations and their professional roles, they
were invited to consider their experiences and perceptions via a variety of arts based
methods, for example, poem houses, poetry, drawings, collage, and narrative fiction.
Participants were then invited to present their art work to their peers in dialogue groups.
Armitage (2014) has proposed a “culture of safety” and collaboration, using Paulo Freire’s
Participatory Action Research (PAR) approach, allows individuals can exchange stories,
experiences, and perspectives within the safety of “culture circles” (dialogue groups). This
enables any ‘cultures of silence’ to emerge within supportive settings (Armitage, 2014).
Those conducting dialogue groups do not actually lead but rather interpret ‘the
communication of the group and the social matrix, remaining in the background as much as
possible and helping the group take responsibility for itself” (Waller, 1996:43). Those
leading dialogue groups need to the ‘interpersonal leader’ (Waller, 1996), a “facilitator of
interpersonal transactions and as a fellow-traveller in the journey of life; taking an
increasingly background role, he attends to the language, both verbal and physical, that is
used in the group and its meaning” (Waller, 1996:43).
It was acknowledged that ethical aspects underpinning these approaches had to be given
consideration. It was important that participants were full briefed about the task they were
being asked to take part in. Whilst ideas and techniques were used from art therapy, a
dividing line was drawn between therapeutic interventions and the use of management
based art to explicate how organisations are perceived by those who worked produce ‘art
work’ (see, for example, Case and Dalley, 2006).
Consent was sought from all those who took part in the creation of their art and dialogue
groups, and to explain the nature of how these would work. Any products handed over to
us for “evidence” has to be done voluntarily only used for academic purposes in an
anonymised form.
Method
Data was collected from thirty six practitioners completing studies towards their Chartered
Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD) membership. Participants were introduced
to the task (see Appendix 1) and were asked to address the following question: How do you
perceive your organisation? No further prompting was given in terms of what they should
produce and how it should be produced was given in them responding to the question. They
were then presented with an array of art based materials, for example, coloured tissue paper,
paints, coloured crayons, coloured card and paper, and a selection of boxes, some of which
could be unfolded in order to allow their insides to be “decorated” as they saw fit. They were
given two hours to use art materials to describe and portray their organisation. They were
also asked to write 200-300 words to describe their work to assist us in our analysis of their
art works.
They were left to their “own devices”. The only intervention we made was to periodically
ask each of them what they were constructing or writing and to take photographs of “the
process in action”. The task was concluded though a group feedback session where students
discussed their art works in an open and supportive culture (see, for example, Kearney and
Hyle, 2003). The findings produced a variety of art works and responses. These were
analysed used qualitative thematic analysis.
Findings
The following examples of work based art collected provide alternative ways to explore
organisational reality by using drawings, poetics and the dialogic process. Zander and
Zander (2000:174) have called these “environments for possibility” where “we come to
trust that these places are dedicated to the notion that no one will be made wrong, people
will not be talked about behind their backs, and there will be no division between us and
them”. Montero (2000:134) notes that “This allows individuals to problematize their lived
reality within their dialogue groups”. Freire called these “reading circles”.
It allows
individuals to voice issues that are silent and potentially live in the shadows of
organisational life.
In response to Margaret Macintyre Latta’s (2004) call for imagination, dialogue, and multivoiced conversations, the following are examples which illustrate how the “dialogical
imagination” comes into being through the dialogic process, drawings, poetry, and poem
houses.
Imaging the Organisation using Poem Houses/self-boxes
Nine poem houses were produced by the group depicting a variety of organisational issues.
One was painted black on the outside, and had different coloured tissue paper “exploding”
out of the top.
The respondent said:
‘My (black painted) box is painted like a treasure chest. The treasure inside contains golden
tissue paper, hidden right at the bottom, is representative of the “golden age” of our
organisation and the charity sector when we were better funded, and the organisational
culture and stiff morale were healthier. The glitter and silver balls inside are our staff and
service users. The silver foil escaping out the sides is our staff who are leaving since we have
changed their conditions, cut salaries and restructures, and our service users whose quality of
support is decreasing, both due to funding cuts. The treasure chest (our organisation) is on
fire, inevitably due to recent changes, we have tried to plug the gaps in the organisation
(holes in the treasure chest) with money, but there isn’t enough. The man in blue is
representative of our government who is standing away from our organisation with his back
to us.‘
Another poem house depicted a set of “swirly circles” on its top. They stated that this
represented chaos, disruption and a loss of vision by the organisation. The inside contained
yellow paper sticks that signified that the organisation was ‘a can of worms’ once you dug
beneath its outer layers. The outside of the house (four sides and bottom) was covered in a
poem that read as follows:
‘The wise old owl has a rainbow view,
In his glitter ball world he knows what to do,
Let’s pass it on down to my next in line,
He’ll pass on my vision and it will be fine.
I love my boss he’s really is great,
Passed on some things I need to relate,
To my purpose and role,
But I’m not sure how,
So I’ll just chuck over the fence,
To my deputy owl.
I’m trying my best to perform as requested,
Without much guidance or direction provided,
I’m probably sure there’s some rules or regulations to follow,
To increase profit and make savings,
I think HR’s knowledge I’ll borrow.
Another huge project has landed our way,
We guide and highlight risk,
And wander who’s in charge today,
Whose bright idea was yet another restructure,
More change and disruption,
Whose help and buy in can one department muster.
We are the minions in this master plan,
Just pushed and pulled through the visions,
Of our glitter ball man.’
One of the poem houses used colour to represent “mood”. The outside was covered in green
tissue paper, the inside was purple. The lid (top) of the box had a circle stuck onto it, which in
turn had three concentric circles. The outer showed words such as pressure, time constraints,
deadlines, money constraints, and the middle had a picture of a clock and pond signs, the
inner contained match stick people. The respondent explained this as:
‘Inside the box – care of the organisation – wants to make a difference to the people it
provides services to. The purple, which is a spiritual colour, is one of the corporate colours the core of our business. The green on the outside is also one of our corporate colours. The
circle represent the organisation – some teams are joined up and work well together
(represented by the people – match stick figures), but some don’t. The arrows (which were
pointing towards the centre of the circle) represent current pressures which have increased
over the last couple of years (local government, funding, redundancies, time pressure etc.).
The chief executive in the middle (female) is leaving at the end of the year; a new CE will be
one of the male directors. The yellow arrows represent the new nursing home built by the
organisation which is the hope for the future and longer term stability.’
Another poem house revealed some very (personal) feelings of organisational reality. The
poem house was covered in writing with comments on the outside and within.
The
participant summed up their analysis of their organisation as follows:
‘The directors are faceless, not see or known around the business. The company seems to
change direction very year, but the problem being that the direction isn’t known by the
employees in the first place. We have an executive board of three, each with their own
agenda nor knowing fully what their roe entails, so they are unable to tell the business – this
has lasted one year! Then it was changed back to one country manager – but still no direction
given other than to cut costs. We have no vision – short, medium or long term – we don’t
know – so we have to guess. The only communication is to cut costs – but can we put a price
on knowledge and experience? Growth has been through acquisition – sixty four sites across
the UK – completely disseminated, no harmonisation, and no uniformity. People that have
been there for years are leaving because they don’t like where and what the company is
doing. There is a general feeling of who will be next or who will be next. The business is
completely reactive – reaching to the market rather than reading ahead – no PESTEL or
SWOT – these have never been done – no business plan.’
One respondent “bucked the trend” of negativity expressed by other participants.
Their
interpretation was shown through a covering of their poem house in smiley faces, the word
“values”, and in bright red bricks (Figure 1). The inside was filled with red and black tissues
paper. Inside a poem was contained:
‘Family run company,
With lots of money,
Helps out staff,
Work is a laugh,
As the company is expanding,
The work is quite demanding,
The owners know you by name,
The company has market fame,
Most people don’t like change,
They think it’s quite strange,
Overall it’s not bad,
Even though sometimes it makes you mad.’
Another poem house contained a selection of colour coded paper cut-outs with words
representing the participant’s ‘likes’ and ‘dislikes’ of the organisation. For example,
comment was made of the organisational culture as being “work, work, work”, “demanding”,
“blame culture”, “hierarchical”, being “black and white”, “job security”. Another comment
seemed to contrast (positive impression). For example, “social”, better “work life balance”
compared to other laws firms, “benefits”, “CSR”. One comment mentioned that the
organisation had the most female partners in law firms in the UK, (this being a figure of
26%). The respondent summed up:
‘My company is perceived as a great place to work for, and pride themselves in being
friendly, approachable, fair, and a great place to work. I mostly enjoy working for my
organisation, but their claims are misconstrued. From the outside (of the poem house) it’s
sunny and welcoming, on the inside it’s cloudy (but not stormy) – overall I like my
organisation, but there are things that can be improved.’
Another self-box was less elaborately decorated. However, some of the words on the outside
appeared to convey anxiety from the respondent, for example, “please help”, “just do it”, and
“what’s going on”.
This was explained as follows:
‘Side 1 represents the Department of Learning and Development, within which I am a
member. We have a high performing team with clear boundaries and expectations. We have
open dialogue in which to share ideas and can professionally challenge each other. Side 2
represents my customer and the hospital within which I work with a new senior management
team and changing middle management. The teams are micro-managed and are unable to
make decisions which were within their remit; the scene depicts oppression. Sides 3 and 4 is
a view of the ward staff in the hospital The feedback is that the staff that do not know the
strategy. It is very difficult to lead learning and when motivation is so low.’
One self-box had the words “compassion”, “collaborative care”, “patients first”, “care”. As
the respondent explained:
‘The outside of the box demonstrates the vision/values and the employer branding the
organisation wants to promote. The box is packed with tissue paper to demonstrate chaos.
The colours (orange and yellow) are bright to shoe stress level and pressure. Inside the box
the (painted) lines show confusion. The pound signs demonstrate cost focus and pressure to
reduce resources. There are a few yellow stars (on the underside of the lid) to demonstrate a
number of staff are making a positive impact. The pictures of the monkeys demonstrate some
employed may be perceived to be out of their depth and have been appointed to the wrong
roles within the organisation.’
One poem house was not covered but upon opening it, it revealed a gold bracelet wrapped in
red tissue paper and smiley face stuck to the underside of the lid. This depicted a happy
organisational culture.
Figure 1 Company Values
Figure 2 What’s the vision
Imaging the organisation using drawings and painting
The themes and issues arising from the drawings were eclectic in nature. Of the 27 drawings
and paintings produced only one provided a positive perception of organisational life. This
participant reported that their organisation was locally mindful, adaptive, evolving, was a
‘living and learning’ culture striving for excellence, ambitious and encouraged and facilitated
learning. It was also environmentally friendly. The remaining focused upon what might be
termed chaotic, and toxic working environments, characterised by bullying bosses, a long
hour culture and a ‘dog eat dog’ environment.
Some reported that stress was an issue accompanied by a ‘target setting’ culture, uncertainty
and high staff turnover. Some produced artefacts that saw a lack of planning of process as
being problematic. Others reported as a “them and us” culture with a clash in, and between,
teams. One noted that the clashes were dysfunctional and detrimental to staff morale.
There was an emphasis put on monetary rewards. One respondent identified that “sales are
king”. This was contrasted with several respondents noting that they were unhappy or
unappreciated or felt unrewarded for their input and efforts. Another reported that there was
a lack of autonomy in their organisation. That disengagement was also an endemic feature of
their organisational culture.
There were several occasions when responses note that that frustration was felt in the
organisation. Also leaders did not communicate with their staff. It was noted that this
situation led to worried staff and ‘them and us’ separation. One noted that ‘infighting’ on the
board was having detrimental effect upon the organisation, which caused subsequent
pressures “underneath”, lower down the hierarchy, leading to a loss of focus in the
organisation. It was a poignant that one respondent noted that trust was an issue in the
organisation “splitting the organisation in many directions”. For some, the business vision
presented to employees - who are trying to catch up – portrays despite day to day problems
that senior management see a rosy picture. This depicts to customers a picture of calm and
organised tranquillity. Yet they perceived the management as ‘clueless’ and ‘speaking a
different language’ which was based in cost cutting. This respondent noted:
“They misuse my needs and manipulate my feelings. My dedication is being sucked away,
and the stress is overriding my happiness due to constant change. Leaders talk blah, blah,
blah”.
One produced a poem as follows to sum their feelings:
‘Everybody’s busy,
There’s lots of talking through,
But what they’re really doing,
Is hiding the elephant in the room.
The leaders are quite cosy,
Believing all is rosy,
But the staff tell a different story,
And it’s far from boring.
How do we work more flexibly?
How do we keep our women?
These are the big questions,
To turn drowning into swimming.’
This was reinforced by others who stated that the organisation was on a journey with lots of
‘up’s and downs’, given obstacles to achieving goals. This was not helped as the higher
leadership was revered and held in awe and middle management was “hanging by a tread”.
The issue of voice was noted:
“There is a fear of change and we are bottom of pile – we have no voice” whereas,
“Management are self-congratulatory, staff are full of doom and gloom, and angry”. For
some their ideas were of ‘disappearing down a black hole’ leading to an “I don’t care
attitude”.’
They identified a split between fee earners and business services, “Separate cultures of
corporate versus commercial”.
Whilst those who worked in the public sector reported that
their organisational structures were seen as “Top heavy” and were suffering from
“Government and public pressures, constantly moving/changing, leading to staff lacking in
confidence”. They identified a “Lack of support, stress, no job security” and felt that they
were like “Puppets – lack of confidence in senior leaders”. That there was “No carer
progression – I can’t climb the ladder. We have no choices”.
One public sector employee
reported that they “hate this place” and that “stress and absence was a consequence of
oppressive leadership/top management”.
The following are examples that capture some of the aforementioned points.
Figure 3 Them and us
Figure 4 A line of miscommunication
Figure 5 Toxic Leadership
Discussion: Making Sense of Art Based Learning
We argue that arts-based learning and development, as part of human resources management
education practices and professional development programmes, (for example The Chartered
Institute of Personal and Development (CIPD)) can be central to developing “artful
capabilities” (Kerr and Lloyd (2008:489). ‘Arts-based learning is intended to develop ‘artful’
ways of working. ‘Artful’ ways of working, knowing and perceiving are about the creative
skills, capacities and capabilities that incorporate reflection, awareness, imagination,
collaboration and adaptability (Darsø 2004; Gibb 2006; Turner 2006 cited in Kerr and Lloyd,
2008:489). These are required by business managers and leaders now and in the future.
Further to our findings in this research we agree with Kerr and Lloyd (2008:489) that ‘these
artful processes should also be appearing in higher education management development, to
enhance the capacity….to be artful [which] is to transform self through profound learning
experiences that expand human consciousness, often facilitated by artistic processes’. In
management education and development a shift from instrumental management towards a
paradigm of artful creation of managerial self, in a creative economy may create social
innovation (see, for example, Kerr and Darsø 2001:1). Bringing personal thoughts, feeling
and emotions within the public forum of organisational life requires supportive and open
cultural settings to explore organizational silence.
of such emotional appraisal can be lost.
Without an enabling process the potential
After all the poet, in the gaze of the stranger,
surrenders and reveals their authentic selfhood to the world, they lay themselves bare, and
naked, and can be seen for who and what they are (Kerr and Darsø 2001). Zander and Zander
(2000:174) have coined supportive culture environments of possibility where ‘We come to
trust that these places are dedicate to the notion that no one will be made wrong, people will
not be talked about behind their backs, and there will be no division between “us” and
“them”’. This allows through interaction and engagement in the workplace, people have the
potential to find alternative and playful ways to develop aesthetic ways of perceiving (Eisner
2002a and 2002b; Gibb 2006).
By adopting arts based approaches to curriculum design, individuals may be enabled to
develop further creative capabilities based from their organisational experiences.
Self-
awareness, emotional intelligence, curiosity, patience, reflection and creativity as ‘risktaking’ (Kerr and Lloyd, 2008:489) can link their personal and professional perceptions and
subsequent skills (Gibb 2006; Monk 2007; Turner and Myerson 1998).
It is our contention that art based approaches can help individuals to make sense of their
experience and subsequent interpretation of ‘reality’. The concept of sensemaking in
organizational studies was first used by Karl Weick (1995) to focus attention upon the largely
cognitive activity of framing experiences to be meaningful for the individual. This is a
process of creating shared awareness and understanding out of different individuals'
perspectives and varied interests. This is a collaborative process. Weick (1995) provides
insights into factors that surface as organizations address either uncertain or ambiguous
situations and further Weick (1995) suggests seven properties of sensemaking as being a
process that reflects what an arts based curriculum should engender. These are issues we
argue are directly addressed by art based curriculum delivery.
Weick (2005) argues that identity and identification is central. Individual identity shapes
what they enact and how they interpret events within context (Pratt, 2000, Currie and Brown,
2003; Weick, Sutcliffe, and Obstfeld, 2005; Thurlow and Mills, 2009; Watson, 2009).
Retrospection can provide an opportunity for sensemaking and affects what people notice
(Dunford and Jones, 2000). Attention and interruptions to that attention become highly
relevant in this process (Gephart, 1993). Weick (2005) purports that people enact the
environments they face though dialogue and their narratives (Bruner, 1991; Watson, 1998;
Currie and Brown, 2003). As people speak, and build narrative accounts, it helps them
understand their thoughts, organize their experiences and then have a sense of control to
predict events (Isabella, 1990; Weick, 1995; Abolafia, 2010). This reduces complexity for
them during organisational change management (Kumar and Singhal, 2012).
Sensemaking is a social activity in that plausible stories are preserved, retained or shared
(Isabella, 1990; Maitlis, 2005). However, the audience for sensemaking includes the speakers
themselves (Watson, 1995) and the narratives are ‘both individual and shared...an evolving
product of conversations with ourselves and with others’ (Currie and Brown, 2003: 565).
Sensemaking is ongoing. Individuals simultaneously shape and react to the environments
they face. As they project themselves into this environment and observe consequences, they
learn and develop their identities and review the accuracy of their accounts of the world
(Thurlow and Mills, 2009). This is a feedback process. As individuals deduce their identity
from the behaviour of others towards them, they also influence their own behavioural
responses.
As Weick (1993) argued, “The basic idea of sensemaking is that reality is an ongoing
accomplishment that emerges from efforts to create order and make retrospective sense of
what occurs” (Weick, 1993a: 635).
Individuals extract cues from the context to help them
decide upon what is relevant and what explanations are acceptable (Salancick and Pfeffer,
1978; Brown, Stacey, and Nandhakumar, 2007) Extracted cues provide points of reference to
link ideas to broader networks of meaning since they are ‘simple, familiar structures that are
seeds from which people develop a larger sense of what may be occurring" (Weick 1995: 50).
Weick (1995) defines sensemaking as ‘an ongoing accomplishment that takes from when
people make retrospective sense of the situations in which they find themselves and their
creations’ (15). Furthermore, sensemaking can be viewed and understood as invention, and
argues that the artefacts it produces include language games and texts, whereas interpretation
is seen as discovery.
Finally, people favour plausibility over accuracy in accounts of events and contexts (Currie
and Brown, 2003; Brown, 2005; Abolafia, 2010), ‘in an equivocal, postmodern world,
infused with the politics of interpretation and conflicting interests and inhabited by people
with multiple shifting identities, an obsession with accuracy seems fruitless, and not of much
practical help, either’ (Weick 1995:61).
As individuals interpret events, each of these aspects interact and intertwine. Interpretations
become evident through narratives, whether written and spoken, which convey the sense they
have made of events (Currie and Brown, 2003). Whilst Weick uses other authors’ poetry to
describe and illustrate these properties, he does not advance any personal insights of his own.
Nor does he extend the notion of narrative towards more eclectic ways of interpreting and
coming to know individual’s reality, for example, paintings, drawings, sculpture, and the
production and use of artefacts. As Weick notes ‘sensemaking is an activity or a process,
whereas interpretation can be a process but is just as likely to describe a product’ (1995:13).
Morgan et al (1983:24) reinforces that ‘Individuals are not seen as living in, and acting out
their lives in relation to a wider reality, so much as creating and sustaining images of a wider
reality, in part to rationalize what they are doing. They realize their reality by “reading into”
their situation patterns of significant meaning’.
Implications for practice: Towards an Arts Based Curriculum for HRD Practice and
CHRDE
Sharing experience
Arts-based initiatives within the context of HRD curriculum delivery are novel. We would
argue that to tap into the latent potential of employees, HRD practitioners might be better
placed to enact change within their organisations than management initiatives; however we
do not advocate the use of arts-based initiatives for purely instrumental reasons. Our premise
is that if ABIs are to be embraced as contributory to a critical pedagogy then HRD
practitioners should accept the role of art-based forms as potentially a central instrument
within CHRDE. The use of ABI developmental approaches might contribute towards the
reviewing of relationships with the organisation.
ABIs can contribute towards people
development which might develop competitive advantage through developing individual
creativity and evolving innovative organisational through reflection. Potentially this might be
achieved if HRD professionals are exposed to innovative ways of confronting organisational
reality with their “own eyes” as part of their own professional development.
It is only when an individual first experiences these processes, which engage with their
personal creativity by the creation of images which reflect emotions that are internalised by
them. The adoption of ABI’s requires the precondition of the organisation is a techno-human
system for which people have a central role. ABI’s are aimed at enhancing the quality of
organisational life. They are based within celebrating and developing people’s nature and
abilities. The possibilities of ABI educative endeavours, broadly defined, might prove to be
near limitless; their power to inform and provoke action is constrained by the human spirit
and its energies (Cole and Knowles, 2008:68). This might further facilitate a means for HRD
professionals to design and deliver organisational development interventions incorporating
ABIs within their own organisations. If ABIs are not aligned with this understanding and are
adopted as a way to manipulate people’s experiences, they could not only end in failure. This
could then undermine the spirit and image of an organisation (Schiuma, 2011:242-243).
The need for management commitment
We argue that like any other type of organisational initiative, ABIs require management
commitment and change in “cultural paradigm” to more transformative ways of development.
As Schiuma (2011:243) notes ABIs ‘are aimed at sparking and supporting organisational
transformation’ that might entail management has to adopt more innovative ways of
addressing operational and strategic issues to ‘identify a new and supportive and goalconsistent culture in believes and behaviours’ (Balogun and Hailey, 2014:7). Support and
commitment from an organisation’s top management is central to any ABI interventions used
as part of organisational development.
We argue that the HRD professionals are best placed to ensure that ABIs have a capacity to
impact on an organisation in a ‘suitable way, and the enhancement of organisational valuecreation’ (Schiuma, 2011:243). However it therefore be acknowledged that ABIs might be
used in isolated cases to address operational or business issues. We advocate that if ABI’s are
used within curriculum design and delivery, these could be directed at specific people
management and development issues in specify units (modules) of learning. For instance, as
part of the study towards approved professional qualifications e.g. CIPD. This we believe
might be the catalyst to expose this approach to their classroom experiences and allow them
to recognise its possible translation to real life organisational contexts e.g. for value creation,
problem solving, and personal enhances of their employees potentiality.
As Schiuma
(2011:243) notes ‘Those initiatives that are implemented as “something nice to have” or
“something to try because it is different and unconventional” do not produce a sustainable
impact and, even worse, can have detrimental effect on the organisation’.
Whilst this study reported here set a single generic question with the intention to explore the
emotional responses of HRD professions, by the use of the lens of ABI it further has
considered possibilities to stimulate the “creative spirit” (as a means to open the “vistas of
possibility” to HRM/D professionals). We are cognisant of the wider utility that ABIs can
have for more directive and business strategic use. It has been considered for some time that
there also needs to be a fundamental re-think as to what HRD should be accomplishing,
rather than as a ‘cinderella’ to human resource management’s financialised approach towards
constant restructure and downsizing.
A repositioning of the HRD profession
Re-reading of organisational context might deliver transformative change programmes that
‘first put in place initiatives to rewrite their context in a way that overcomes the obstacles to
enable desired change’ (Balogun and Hailey, 2014:7).
If professional qualifications are a vehicle for those striving to attained senior and strategic
positions in organisations, then perhaps a radical reposting of what a HRD professional is
needs fuller examination.
We advocate that in order to be change agents “on the ground”
HRD professions should be re-defined as “human value creators”. These are what Schiuma
(2011:244) calls ‘art architects’ who play ‘a crucial role in making sure that ABIs address
business issues and the development of organisational value-creation capacity. Armitage
(2012 and 2014) has illustrated how these can work in practice, and our findings presented
here further confirm this to be the case and concurs with other advocates of this approach
(see, for example, Zander and Zander, 2002; Darsø, 2009).
To which an essential
precondition for ABIs being successful is the desire to aspire to trust building environments.
For which organisations need to adopt ‘safe learning cultures’ to introduce ABIs which are
couched within the dialogical process. Where individual employees have space and places
where they can express their concerns and feelings through stories, narratives then ABIs can
translate their perceptive ‘reality’ into meaningful actions which they own. Balogun and
Hailey (2014) note within the context of transformational change ‘Storytelling might be
extended by materials such as comics and cartoons, or theatrical performances to bring
narratives to life. In addition, there are particular ways of structuring conversations about
change that facilitate engagement’.
Developing trust
As Schiuma (2008:245) notes ‘in order to guarantee the production of positive benefits for
the organisation, artists and business people have to shape a mutual trustful relationship’.
This, we argue, is a necessary condition to overcome employee diffidence and scepticism.
Senior management may be driven by rational-goal setting management paradigms and
targets. Therefore any aim to utilise a critical pedagogy which might lead to more sustainable
people management demands a change of cultural aspiration towards long term approaches.
It becomes important that organisations review the organisational context before they embark
upon ABIs. Much of current critical management thinking lies with the tensions between
powerful discourses within the organisation, which in the post-millennium context lie with
capitalist financialised positions from organisations operating in neo-liberal environments.
We advocate that senior management need to address possible imbalances between focus
towards capital or people with their resolve leading them towards greater people focus. Yet
since ABIs need not be not part of strategic organisation wide transformation, we suggest a
Kaisen-style approach i.e. small changes in discrete business units as means to show the
wider organisation (both diffident and sceptics) the value and worth of ABI’s. We are not
offering a panacea in our approach here but organisational “big bang” initiatives can be seen
as risky and if management perceive they will be risk-takers, they may resist adoption.
ABIs should not be perceived by employees as being held as ‘something over their heads’
either (Schiuma, 2011:246). ABIs can run into resistance by participants also if they are
concerned for their lack of artistic talent. This attitude was not uncommon with our research
participants, not least because they felt embarrassed produced artefacts for “public
consumption”.
ABIs it must be emphasised are about individual’s perspectives, their
interiority and emotions and not producing “good art”.
This “sticking point” can be
overcome if those who facilitate ABIs have produced their own art work and to then put them
on “public display” in order to allay any fears of the artistic worth of any art productions. As
an aside once people understand this is not an “art class” but a vehicle for “getting it all out”
the dynamic of ABIs take on (paradoxically) an expressive and creative dimension. This
“anti-talent” can further be dispelled if those taking part can see the utility of producing their
productions, and have a sense of participation and voice in the ABI process. We therefore
advocate that ABIs are carefully planned in consultation with those who might be taking part
in them, perhaps a one hour workshop to introduce and discuss issues and problems could be
a way forward (as for example quality circles), before the actual ABI even itself. This would
not only prime employees, but might also give management inkling as to what they may
confront, and help inform any solutions to address organisational problems and issues.
Conclusions
This paper provides an examination of the use of ABIs to explore the workplace experiences
and provide an opportunity for individuals to express their appraisal of reality within
organisations through their emotional responses. In so doing, it demonstrates the use of ABIs
as a useful instrument to unlock silent cultures and unlock hidden realities, whilst allowing
the individual to own these and reflect on them to consider their future action. Groysberg and
Slind (2012:4 note that leaders need to ‘initiate practices that foster cultural norms that instil
a conversational sensibility throughout their organisations’. This can only be possible ‘by
talking to employees, rather than simply issuing orders, leaders can retain or recapture some
of the qualities - operational flexibility, high level of employee engagement, [and] tight
strategic alignment’. This might suggest that leaders might engage in personal and dialogical
relationships with those they lead. Therefore core themes that concern the enabling and
enacting of development in organisations through creative techniques such as the use of ABIs
within represent a critical pedagogical approach that may be used to share workplace
experiences. Further these might be founded within a Therapeutic Leadership approach that
entails a healing, curative and restorative ethos. It draws upon the ideas of self-differentiation
leadership and the family systems perspective (Friedman, 1985) and dialogue (Freire, 1970;
Bohm, 1996; Watkins and Shulman, 2008).
Friedman (1985:52) notes ‘Family secrets act
as the plaque in the arteries of communication; they cause stoppage in the general flow and
not just at the point of their existence’. Friedman suggests that self-differentiated leaders have
the capacity to separate themselves from surrounding emotional processes, have the capacity
to obtain clarity about their principles and vision, have the willingness to be exposed and be
vulnerable, have the persistence to face inertial resistance, and the self-regulation of emotions
in the face of reactive sabotage. The concept of family as described by Friedman is central, it
can be argued, to therapeutic leadership practices in order to infuse trust, openness,
inclusiveness, participation, creative problem solving, and democracy that are given birth in
the cradle of the dialogical process (see, for example, Groysberg and Slind, 2012), enabling
the voices of the “silent led” to be heard (Montero, 2000 and 2009; Watkins and Shulman,
2008). As such, therapeutic leadership brings together several strands. First it is a leadership
approach based upon inclusivity that enables individuals to reach their human potential,
where the polarity between leader and follower does not exist. This being a dialectical
relationship focusing on the organic relationship between their constituent parts. It is not the
case argues Friedman (1985:228) where ‘A causes B, that is where a leader motivates a
follower or a follower resists a leader….a family systems concept of leadership looks at how
they function as part of one another’. Second it requires organisations as part of their ongoing
leadership development programs to introduce safe learning spaces enabling enlightened
ways of identifying, mentoring and training leaders. Third, and allied to the second point, is
the creation a dialogical community that can be characterised by accounts that contain an
element of transformation whereby action and characters are brought together in a plot line
(see, for example, Freire, 1970 and 1972; Montero, 2009; Watkins and Shulman, 2008).
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Appendix 1
Imaginizing Organisations
Introduction
There is a growing interest in the use of art, in whatever guise, that can be used to understand
how we perceive and interact with organisations to explore the realities behind our normal
modes of discourse. This has implications for the culture of silence and voice in
organisational settings, and accessing the imagination in order to stimulate our creative sprit.
The use of art to explore our images can evoke hidden and silent realties of how we see the
world, but articulating how these give meaning to us can be problematic when translated
through the spoken word. This can be for a variety of reasons. Perhaps the meanings of some
images cannot be explained in our common language we use with each other, and require us
to use a “private language” to make sense of the world. It might also be the case that our
images of how we encounter and see the world require us to express ourselves in other
mediums so we can communicate our feelings and emotions to each other rather than speak
about these directly with others in face to face encounters. Some of the emerging ways in
which art can be used to enhance organisational and management practice are:






Poem houses
Storytelling
Vignettes
Drawings (Rich pictures)
Autobiographies
Poetry
Activity
Using one or more of the approaches listed above, you are invited to discuss the following
question:
How do you perceive your organisation?
How you report this back in your dialogue group is your personal choice. You can if you
wish combine approaches, for example, a poem house with a short story or a piece of poetry.
Whilst this is a personal and therefore voluntary activity, I hope you will still “give it go" so
you can experience and share your organisational realties with each other through alternative
mediums of studying HRM that breaks the mould of the more formal way we interact with
organisational life.