Research Framework for Evaluating the Effects of Artistic Interventions in Organizations more

The past decades have witnessed the emergence of a multitude of ways to stimulate innovation and organizational learning in response to changes in society and economic pressures. Among these are “artistic interventions” - when some form of art is brought into an organization for several hours, days, or months, to trigger or support a learning and change process at the individual, group, or organizational level. The underlying assumption of practitioners is that bringing people, processes, and products from the “foreign culture” of the arts into the workplace helps to stimulate new ways of thinking and acting by irritating routines, challenging established mindsets, and developing new skills. Artistic interventions in organizations are
conducted with high expectations of a multitude of positive outcomes. Research has not kept pace with these developments in practice. Very few empirical studies have been conducted to establish whether the high hopes placed on these interventions are justified. This report presents a research framework designed to start closing the gap between research and practice by enabling an analysis of the values that artistic interventions add in organizations. It is based on our past
research, on existing literature, and on a series of three “Artful Research” workshops conducted in Berlin in September 2009, at which thirty three artists, people from companies and from intermediary organizations, consultants, and researchers shared their knowledge about the effects they have observed in connection with artistic interventions in organizations. The report answers two questions: 1) Where should attention be
directed to find the kinds of value that artistic interventions add in organizations? 2) And how should the research be conducted?