Longitudinal research in organizations has gained momentum to the point where it may now be consi... more Longitudinal research in organizations has gained momentum to the point where it may now be considered to reflect the tenor of the times, or zeitgeist, for organizational studies. An important part of that longitudinal research is what, borrowing and extending from the work of Ilgen and Hulin, is called the third scientific discipline. That discipline consists of numerous perspectives focusing on various aspects of chaos/complexity, dynamic systems, and processual approaches. These approaches are being increasingly applied across various organizational research fields such as social and industrial/organizational psychology and small-group and leadership studies. A dynamic systems approach is turned on itself to analyze the scientific development of third-discipline approaches. Although the jury is still out, these approaches appear to be making increasingly strong contributions to the longitudinal zeitgeist and to organizational studies in general.
Journal of Organizational Change Management, May 8, 2017
The purpose of this article is to explore the narrative nature of organizational spaces and how t... more The purpose of this article is to explore the narrative nature of organizational spaces and how these narratives influence human action. The study introduces a notion of 'narrating space' that emphasizes a narrative construction of space that is dynamic and performative. The study joins the recent material and spatial turn in organization studies where spaces are not considered merely as a container or a context to organizational action, but as a dynamic and active force. Design/methodology/approach: The study draws on the triadic conception of space of Henry Lefebvre (1991). Lefebvre developed three interconnected dimensions of space: conceived, perceived and lived space. Space can be conceived as an abstract architectural plan or perceived through the practice of space. The dimension that integrates these two is the lived space. Spaces are experienced through emotions, imagination and embodied sensations. Instead of being a passive object, spaces become active and performative through the human engagement. They carry narratives that change their form as time passes by. The study embraces aesthetic, embodied epistemology where sensuous perceptions are considered as valid knowledge. Findings: The study applies an aesthetic and dynamic approach to space and illustrates how spaces carry performative and processual narratives. These narratives are based on lived experience through personal, embodied experience, memories, and sensuous perceptions. The illustrations also show that narratives change over time. Theoretical implications: A narrating space concept is characterized by being subjective, dynamic, and temporal. Furthermore, it is pointed out that space is constructed through sense-based experiences.
Journal of Management & Organization, Sep 18, 2017
This paper examines office design as a spatial context of organizations. Organizations increasing... more This paper examines office design as a spatial context of organizations. Organizations increasingly invest in designing workspaces to support employee creativity, foster company innovation and communicate a positive company image. This paper takes a critical view of this 'hype' by describing and analysing images of the headquarters of allegedly 'creative workspaces' published on the Internet across a broad range of industries and corporations. Our analysis shows how their design follows standardized or stereotypical approaches to nurturing creativity: playfully or artistically designed open spaces, environments reminiscent of home, sports and play, nature, past/future technologies, or culturally aligned symbols. We discern underlying connections between office spaces and creativity, suggesting that creativity flourishes in happy, relaxed and playful communities within close-knit teams. We then identify three contradictions in relation to the existing literature on creativity and workspaces: individually versus collectively produced creativity; professionally designed workspaces versus workspaces created through participation; and planned versus emerging creativity.
A more detailed description of the sample and analysis of the pictures is provided in another art... more A more detailed description of the sample and analysis of the pictures is provided in another article (De Paoli, Sauer and Ropo, forthcoming).
e are interested in the processes through which Finnish conductors have become world-class that i... more e are interested in the processes through which Finnish conductors have become world-class that is, how globally recognized conductorship is constructed by various actors in the music field: cultural policy-makers, music critics, orchestra musicians, conducting instructors, composers and, finally, conductors themselves. Our questions include the following: What are the career paths chosen by Finnish conductors? What kind of training do conductors receive in Finlandwhat triggering as well as supportive and hindering events are involved? How do conductors rehearse and relate to the musicians in their orchestras?
developments in Finnish arts and culture have caught the attention of management scholars as well... more developments in Finnish arts and culture have caught the attention of management scholars as well as cultural managers. First, the scarcity of public money at both state and municipal levels has strained the allocation of resources among local services, encouraging cultural organizations to seek funding elsewhere, such as through corporate partnerships. This development has generated a lively discussion about the relationships among the arts, the economy and cultural service provision. In addition, arts organizations, such as orchestras, are considered vital to the local regions in terms of image, employment and overall quality of life. This situation calls for the fostering of links between local aspirations and the orchestra's own ambitions. Finally, in Finland economic support from state and municipal governments has guaranteed orchestras semi-autonomous status and the freedom to provide the kind of music they consider excellent. However, orchestras are now being urged to pay more attention to different types of audiences, such as business and private interests. Given the above developments, some Finnish orchestras have taken the strategic step of developing partnerships in order to ensure their survival, although this phenomenon is not yet widespread. This paper describes and analyses the partnership process of a pioneer in this respect, the Lahti Symphony Orchestra. We were especially interested in how partnerships are established and evolve, the kind of people and leadership they require, and the implications of partnerships for the life of an orchestra.
Journal of Organizational Change Management, Aug 11, 2014
Purpose– The purpose of this paper is to develop a visual perspective to the narrative management... more Purpose– The purpose of this paper is to develop a visual perspective to the narrative management research by exploring the potential of drawings to construct organizational space. This study is explorative in nature and aims to open up a discussion on the importance of visuality within the narrative research. Visual narratives combined with written ones are constructed and analyzed in the paper.Design/methodology/approach– The empirical illustrations of visual narratives outline students’ first-time encounters of the university campus. Their drawings and stories are used to describe and analyze their personal and subjective experiences of how they relate to the campus space. The students were asked to recall the moment they encountered the university campus for the first time and to draw their memories on a paper. Furthermore, they were asked to describe the drawings in a written narrative. Following that, the storyline was identified through a content analysis of both the drawings and the written narratives. This participatory research approach considers informants as co-researchers in producing data and emphasizes the inter-subjective nature of the study.Findings– The study points out valuable aspects in visual narrative organization research. The drawings and written narratives were found to complement each other revealing different things of the experiences. The drawings were very rich and detailed. They captured and revealed emotions, symbolic meanings and interpretations that were not explicated in the written stories. Finally, categories of visual narratives on organizational space were developed.Originality/value– This study contributes to the development of visual methodology in narrative management research. Moreover, this paper provides a methodological contribution to study organizational space. It sheds light on the potential of using visual narrative materials, especially self-produced drawings to construct organizational space. The study develops and illustrates a visual research method that combines written narratives with drawings. The study points out the importance to involve the informants as co-creators of a narrative study to capture the emotional richness of visual narratives. The authors envision that visual aspects of narratives will be a future direction in the narrative research, because visuality may capture hidden emotional aspects, symbols and artifacts that are not easily revealed in the told or written stories.
We wish to develop the argument in this paper that through aesthetic and artistic work, practices... more We wish to develop the argument in this paper that through aesthetic and artistic work, practices and their metaphorical use, we have a potential to better understand the relationship between academic leadership theory and practical action. By aesthetic approach we mean the experiential way of knowing that emphasizes human senses and the corporeal nature of social interaction in leadership. In this paper, we discuss how leadership could look, sound and feel like when seen via the artistic metaphor of dance. We use the traditional dance, waltz and the postmodern dance experience of raves to illustrate our argument. By doing so, we challenge traditional, intellectually oriented and positivistic leadership approaches that hardly recognize nor conceptualize aesthetic, bodily aspects of social interaction between people in the workplace.The ballroom dance waltz is used as a metaphorical representation of a hierarchical, logical and rational understanding of leadership. The waltz metaphor describes the leader as a dominant individual who knows where to go and the dance partner as a follower or at least as someone with a lesser role in defining the dance. Raves, on the other hand representparadigmatically different kind of a dance and therefore a different understanding of leadership. There are neither dance steps to learn, nor fixed dance partners where one leads and the other follows. Even the purpose or aim of dancing may not be known at the beginning of the dance, but it is negotiated as the raves go on. We think that raves describe the organizational life as it is often seen and felt today: chaotic, full of unexpected changes, ambiguous and changing collaborators in networks. Here leadership becomes a collective, distributed activity where the work processes and the targeted outcome is continually negotiated.Through the dance metaphors of waltz and raves, we suggest aspects such as gaze, rhythm and space to give an aesthetic description both to a more traditional and an emerging aesthetic paradigm of leadership where the corporeality of leadership is emphasized. We wish to make the point that leadership is aesthetically and corporeally co-constructed both between the leader and the followers as well as between the researcher and the subjects. The metaphor of dance illustrates the corporeal nature of leadership both to practitioners and theoreticians.
e are interested in the processes through which Finnish conductors have become world-class that i... more e are interested in the processes through which Finnish conductors have become world-class that is, how globally recognized conductorship is constructed by various actors in the music field: cultural policy-makers, music critics, orchestra musicians, conducting instructors, composers and, finally, conductors themselves. Our questions include the following: What are the career paths chosen by Finnish conductors? What kind of training do conductors receive in Finlandwhat triggering as well as supportive and hindering events are involved? How do conductors rehearse and relate to the musicians in their orchestras?
Longitudinal research in organizations has gained momentum to the point where it may now be consi... more Longitudinal research in organizations has gained momentum to the point where it may now be considered to reflect the tenor of the times, or zeitgeist, for organizational studies. An important part of that longitudinal research is what, borrowing and extending from the work of Ilgen and Hulin, is called the third scientific discipline. That discipline consists of numerous perspectives focusing on various aspects of chaos/complexity, dynamic systems, and processual approaches. These approaches are being increasingly applied across various organizational research fields such as social and industrial/organizational psychology and small-group and leadership studies. A dynamic systems approach is turned on itself to analyze the scientific development of third-discipline approaches. Although the jury is still out, these approaches appear to be making increasingly strong contributions to the longitudinal zeitgeist and to organizational studies in general.
Journal of Organizational Change Management, May 8, 2017
The purpose of this article is to explore the narrative nature of organizational spaces and how t... more The purpose of this article is to explore the narrative nature of organizational spaces and how these narratives influence human action. The study introduces a notion of 'narrating space' that emphasizes a narrative construction of space that is dynamic and performative. The study joins the recent material and spatial turn in organization studies where spaces are not considered merely as a container or a context to organizational action, but as a dynamic and active force. Design/methodology/approach: The study draws on the triadic conception of space of Henry Lefebvre (1991). Lefebvre developed three interconnected dimensions of space: conceived, perceived and lived space. Space can be conceived as an abstract architectural plan or perceived through the practice of space. The dimension that integrates these two is the lived space. Spaces are experienced through emotions, imagination and embodied sensations. Instead of being a passive object, spaces become active and performative through the human engagement. They carry narratives that change their form as time passes by. The study embraces aesthetic, embodied epistemology where sensuous perceptions are considered as valid knowledge. Findings: The study applies an aesthetic and dynamic approach to space and illustrates how spaces carry performative and processual narratives. These narratives are based on lived experience through personal, embodied experience, memories, and sensuous perceptions. The illustrations also show that narratives change over time. Theoretical implications: A narrating space concept is characterized by being subjective, dynamic, and temporal. Furthermore, it is pointed out that space is constructed through sense-based experiences.
Journal of Management & Organization, Sep 18, 2017
This paper examines office design as a spatial context of organizations. Organizations increasing... more This paper examines office design as a spatial context of organizations. Organizations increasingly invest in designing workspaces to support employee creativity, foster company innovation and communicate a positive company image. This paper takes a critical view of this 'hype' by describing and analysing images of the headquarters of allegedly 'creative workspaces' published on the Internet across a broad range of industries and corporations. Our analysis shows how their design follows standardized or stereotypical approaches to nurturing creativity: playfully or artistically designed open spaces, environments reminiscent of home, sports and play, nature, past/future technologies, or culturally aligned symbols. We discern underlying connections between office spaces and creativity, suggesting that creativity flourishes in happy, relaxed and playful communities within close-knit teams. We then identify three contradictions in relation to the existing literature on creativity and workspaces: individually versus collectively produced creativity; professionally designed workspaces versus workspaces created through participation; and planned versus emerging creativity.
A more detailed description of the sample and analysis of the pictures is provided in another art... more A more detailed description of the sample and analysis of the pictures is provided in another article (De Paoli, Sauer and Ropo, forthcoming).
e are interested in the processes through which Finnish conductors have become world-class that i... more e are interested in the processes through which Finnish conductors have become world-class that is, how globally recognized conductorship is constructed by various actors in the music field: cultural policy-makers, music critics, orchestra musicians, conducting instructors, composers and, finally, conductors themselves. Our questions include the following: What are the career paths chosen by Finnish conductors? What kind of training do conductors receive in Finlandwhat triggering as well as supportive and hindering events are involved? How do conductors rehearse and relate to the musicians in their orchestras?
developments in Finnish arts and culture have caught the attention of management scholars as well... more developments in Finnish arts and culture have caught the attention of management scholars as well as cultural managers. First, the scarcity of public money at both state and municipal levels has strained the allocation of resources among local services, encouraging cultural organizations to seek funding elsewhere, such as through corporate partnerships. This development has generated a lively discussion about the relationships among the arts, the economy and cultural service provision. In addition, arts organizations, such as orchestras, are considered vital to the local regions in terms of image, employment and overall quality of life. This situation calls for the fostering of links between local aspirations and the orchestra's own ambitions. Finally, in Finland economic support from state and municipal governments has guaranteed orchestras semi-autonomous status and the freedom to provide the kind of music they consider excellent. However, orchestras are now being urged to pay more attention to different types of audiences, such as business and private interests. Given the above developments, some Finnish orchestras have taken the strategic step of developing partnerships in order to ensure their survival, although this phenomenon is not yet widespread. This paper describes and analyses the partnership process of a pioneer in this respect, the Lahti Symphony Orchestra. We were especially interested in how partnerships are established and evolve, the kind of people and leadership they require, and the implications of partnerships for the life of an orchestra.
Journal of Organizational Change Management, Aug 11, 2014
Purpose– The purpose of this paper is to develop a visual perspective to the narrative management... more Purpose– The purpose of this paper is to develop a visual perspective to the narrative management research by exploring the potential of drawings to construct organizational space. This study is explorative in nature and aims to open up a discussion on the importance of visuality within the narrative research. Visual narratives combined with written ones are constructed and analyzed in the paper.Design/methodology/approach– The empirical illustrations of visual narratives outline students’ first-time encounters of the university campus. Their drawings and stories are used to describe and analyze their personal and subjective experiences of how they relate to the campus space. The students were asked to recall the moment they encountered the university campus for the first time and to draw their memories on a paper. Furthermore, they were asked to describe the drawings in a written narrative. Following that, the storyline was identified through a content analysis of both the drawings and the written narratives. This participatory research approach considers informants as co-researchers in producing data and emphasizes the inter-subjective nature of the study.Findings– The study points out valuable aspects in visual narrative organization research. The drawings and written narratives were found to complement each other revealing different things of the experiences. The drawings were very rich and detailed. They captured and revealed emotions, symbolic meanings and interpretations that were not explicated in the written stories. Finally, categories of visual narratives on organizational space were developed.Originality/value– This study contributes to the development of visual methodology in narrative management research. Moreover, this paper provides a methodological contribution to study organizational space. It sheds light on the potential of using visual narrative materials, especially self-produced drawings to construct organizational space. The study develops and illustrates a visual research method that combines written narratives with drawings. The study points out the importance to involve the informants as co-creators of a narrative study to capture the emotional richness of visual narratives. The authors envision that visual aspects of narratives will be a future direction in the narrative research, because visuality may capture hidden emotional aspects, symbols and artifacts that are not easily revealed in the told or written stories.
We wish to develop the argument in this paper that through aesthetic and artistic work, practices... more We wish to develop the argument in this paper that through aesthetic and artistic work, practices and their metaphorical use, we have a potential to better understand the relationship between academic leadership theory and practical action. By aesthetic approach we mean the experiential way of knowing that emphasizes human senses and the corporeal nature of social interaction in leadership. In this paper, we discuss how leadership could look, sound and feel like when seen via the artistic metaphor of dance. We use the traditional dance, waltz and the postmodern dance experience of raves to illustrate our argument. By doing so, we challenge traditional, intellectually oriented and positivistic leadership approaches that hardly recognize nor conceptualize aesthetic, bodily aspects of social interaction between people in the workplace.The ballroom dance waltz is used as a metaphorical representation of a hierarchical, logical and rational understanding of leadership. The waltz metaphor describes the leader as a dominant individual who knows where to go and the dance partner as a follower or at least as someone with a lesser role in defining the dance. Raves, on the other hand representparadigmatically different kind of a dance and therefore a different understanding of leadership. There are neither dance steps to learn, nor fixed dance partners where one leads and the other follows. Even the purpose or aim of dancing may not be known at the beginning of the dance, but it is negotiated as the raves go on. We think that raves describe the organizational life as it is often seen and felt today: chaotic, full of unexpected changes, ambiguous and changing collaborators in networks. Here leadership becomes a collective, distributed activity where the work processes and the targeted outcome is continually negotiated.Through the dance metaphors of waltz and raves, we suggest aspects such as gaze, rhythm and space to give an aesthetic description both to a more traditional and an emerging aesthetic paradigm of leadership where the corporeality of leadership is emphasized. We wish to make the point that leadership is aesthetically and corporeally co-constructed both between the leader and the followers as well as between the researcher and the subjects. The metaphor of dance illustrates the corporeal nature of leadership both to practitioners and theoreticians.
e are interested in the processes through which Finnish conductors have become world-class that i... more e are interested in the processes through which Finnish conductors have become world-class that is, how globally recognized conductorship is constructed by various actors in the music field: cultural policy-makers, music critics, orchestra musicians, conducting instructors, composers and, finally, conductors themselves. Our questions include the following: What are the career paths chosen by Finnish conductors? What kind of training do conductors receive in Finlandwhat triggering as well as supportive and hindering events are involved? How do conductors rehearse and relate to the musicians in their orchestras?
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Papers by Arja Ropo