AN AESTHETIC APPROACH TO THE FORMULATION OF ORGANIZATIONAL STRATEGY: THE EXAMPLE OF A FRENCH UNIVERSITY

Abstract

This article explores how an aesthetic approach contributes to enriching the formulation of strategy by thinking outside the box, responding to recent calls for the introduction of more “sensitivity” into the field of strategic management to counter the dominance of rationality and positivism. Faced with the omnipresence of uncertainty in organizations are looking for innovative approaches to think about change. In this respect, methods inspired by art seem particularly relevant. For this reason, one of the authors conducted a research-intervention with an artistic approach in a French multidisciplinary university. This intervention serves as a field of investigation into how an aesthetic approach can potentially contribute to the formulation of strategy in a specific category of organizations, in this case universities. For several decades, research has emphasized the atypical character of universities in terms of their relationship to strategy, while these institutions are now confronted with paradoxical injunctions requiring them to reinvent themselves to meet the challenges of global competition. Our study highlights the contribution of an aesthetic approach, both in terms of the characteristics of the strategic decision-making process and the results of this process. Strategy formulation seems to be facilitated by the integration of cognitive, emotional and bodily processes that stimulate creativity and lead to an intuitive and imaginative understanding of the meaning of strategy and its complexity. This understanding brings satisfaction and motivation, but also changes in behavior and values at individual and organizational levels through the evocative power of metaphor and the stimulating energy of drawing and painting.