Organisational Aesthetics

Organisations have long been dominated by the perspectives of the Good (quality) and the True (efficiency). The perspective of the Beautiful, an aesthetic lens on organisations, has largely been ignored or forgotten. The Beautiful includes stimuli in organisations that trigger aesthetic experiences through the presence or attribution of coherence, congruence, contact, completion, and curiosity in organisations. As the function of organisations changes, they become increasingly human-centred, which also creates space for the aesthetic value of organisations.

Based on (doctoral) research at thirty organisations across the Netherlands, including Rabobank, Randstad, and FlevoHospital, theories from aesthetics, and real-life experiences with design thinking at organisations, Steven de Groot presents eight design principles for the advancement of beauty in organisations. This book contains twenty practical beauty-elevating interventions for organisations that management consultants and managers can get started with right away.

In the final chapter, De Groot showcases eleven organisations and companies that are already displaying some level of aesthetic value. The appendices include a tool that lets organisations assess their performance in the domain of the Beautiful.

Steven de Groot, PhD, is Professor of Innovative Entrepreneurship at Zuyd University of Applied Sciences in the Netherlands. His research focus is on organisational innovation, strategy and entrepreneurship, and artistic interventions and design thinking in organisations.

‘In this book, Steven de Groot shifts the focus to a positive, as yet largely neglected feature of organisations: their ability to create opportunities for people to experience beauty. Beauty that can be experienced in work processes, in an organisation’s products and services, and in how collaboration between people is organised’ – Mathieu Weggeman (Professor of Organisational Science and Innovation Management at Eindhoven University of Technology)