ABSTRACT

Despite the growing academic interest in the aesthetic dimensions of organizational life, there is a surprising lack of critical reflection on how to analyse data acquired through organizational aesthetic research. This paper addresses this gap, first by illustrating the analytical challenges that aesthetic research poses. Then, it introduces participatory interpretation as an analytical method, and evaluates it by drawing on an empirical study. What sets this method apart from the other methods traditionally used is its potential (1) to avoid an almost exclusive reliance on the researcher’s interpretation, developing instead an understanding of the aesthetics explored which takes into account both the researcher’s and the actors’ interpretations, and (2) to achieve an understanding of the performativity of the organizational aesthetics under study. The paper concludes by suggesting possible applications of this method in a wide range of other organizational research fields.

摘要

尽管学术界对组织生活的美学方面的兴趣日益浓厚，但令人惊讶的是，对于如何分析通过组织美学研究获得的数据缺乏批判性思考。本文首先通过说明美学研究提出的分析挑战来解决这一差距。然后，介绍参与式解释作为一种分析方法，并通过实证研究对其进行评估。该方法与传统上使用的其他方法的不同之处在于它的潜力（1）避免几乎完全依赖研究人员的解释，而是发展对所探究美学的理解，同时考虑到研究人员和演员的解释，以及（2）了解所研究的组织美学的性能。本文最后提出了该方法在其他组织研究领域中的可能应用的建议。