Research & Publications

Book Proposal

The Arts in Organizational Research: Creative Explorations of the Workplace
Editors: Soosan Daghighi Latham and J. Gary Knowles

Audience

The book is directed towards organizational scholars (university and community-based researchers, graduate, and undergraduate students) interested in creative approaches to depiction of organizational issues and practices as well as, organizational practitioners who engage in an integrative and evidence-based approach to their practice. It is intended to provide examples of scholarship that has used the arts, in some way, for creative explorations and representations of workplace research and practice. A central quality of the book is that it is inspirational and provocative to scholar readers and accessible to a broad band of practitioners who sense new possibilities of expression and learning with the inclusion of the arts, broadly defined in their work.

Focus

The book is conceived in response to the call for creative solutions to novel organizational complexities in the face of the changing North American workforce and workplace, as well as the general call to make scholarship more accessible to practitioners. This edited volume will point scholars toward innovative possibilities in understanding organizational dynamics and diversity of human behavior. It will illustrate some of the possibilities for creative thinking and practice. The chapters will reflect unconventional research approaches and processes that are inclusive of creative art forms (in the sense of the artistry in the work illuminating and enhancing the communicability of the subject matter). The intent of the book is to demonstrate the fusion of organizational research with artistic processes and to engage and enhance human creativity in new forms of communication so as to enhance practice-based implementations.

Structure

Section One: Inspired by the Arts
This section evidences artistic renditions of organizational knowledge that are presented in their original aesthetic form. The unifying element among these chapters is the influence of the arts in generating creativity and bringing about critical reflexivity. This section shows a broad range of media forms that transcend traditional text in order to contribute to organizational learning and the understanding of the human condition in creative ways. The art forms drawn on include film, video, new media, and performances such as improvisation, dance, stage plays, story telling, and music.

Selection of these short snapshot contributions will be limited to maximum of ten pieces (a total of 80 pages) each with 2800 words or equivalent of 8 pages. (Authors should consult with the editors regarding the form of the work and number of images proposed before submitting a chapter proposal.)

Section Two: Informed by the Arts
Chapters in this section include the empirical work of scholars who study the workplace environment and organizational practices using art forms to generate and convey meaning. As in Section One these art forms include film, video, new media, and performances such as improvisation, dance, stage plays, story telling, and music, for example. Specifically, these chapters showcase creative and qualitative means of conceptualizing organizational research, and / or innovative information gathering processes and representation grounded in the arts.

Shared qualities among these contributions include:

• Focus on the creative, theoretical and methodological ways that the arts inform and influence organizational research. Particular attention is given to ways of understanding, generating and communicating knowledge relevant to a diverse workforce.
• Orientation that is central to understanding human behavior, communication and interaction at the individual, group and organizational levels and functions.
• Attention to the impact and influence of the artistic process on organizational and individual effectiveness, creativity, learning and / or potential for transformation.

This section includes ten long chapters limited to 7000 words or equivalent of 20 pages each inclusive of images. (Authors should consult with the editors regarding the form of the work and number of images proposed before submitting a chapter proposal.)

Timeline