Claus poetics of the unsolvable v18

253 Pages·2014·10.03 MB·English

by  Claus Springborg

CRANFIELD UNIVERSITY

Claus Springborg

Art-based Methods in Management Education

Cranfield School of Management

PhD
Academic Year: 2010-2014

Supervisor: Donna Ladkin, Kim Turnbull
December, 2014

CRANFIELD UNIVERSITY

Cranfield School of Management

PhD

Academic Year 2010-2014

Claus Springborg
Art-­‐based
 methods
 in
 management
 education

Supervisor: Donna Ladkin, Kim Turnbull
December, 2014

This thesis is submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of
Ph.D.

©
 Cranfield
 University
 2014.
 All
 rights
 reserved.
 No
 part
 of
 this
 publication
 may
 be
 reproduced

without
 the
 written
 permission
 of
 the
 copyright
 owner

Everything
 on
 the
 following
 pages
 is
 built
 upon
 the
 foundation
 of
 the
 sensory
 impressions
 from

thousand
 of
 hours
 I
 have
 spent
 teaching,
 learning,
 watching,
 and
 enjoying
 dance
 and
 music;
 and

from
 an
 equal
 amount
 of
 hours
 spent
 watching
 sculptures,
 paintings
 and
 installations,

 in
 places,

such
 as,
 Tate,
 National
 Gallery,
 Somerset
 House
 (London),
 Herimitage
 (Saint
 Petersburg),
 and

Louvre
 (Paris);
 and
 listening
 to
 the
 evocations
 and
 transmissions
 of
 spiritual
 teachers.
 These

sensory
 impressions
 are
 both
 the
 foundation
 of
 the
 present
 work
 and
 its
 ultimate
 message.
 They
 are

the
 tools
 of
 perception-­‐action
 I
 have
 spent
 forty
 years
 developing
 and
 four
 years
 formulating
 in
 this

work.

Abstract
 (323
 words)

The
 purpose
 of
 this
 dissertation
 is
 to
 develop
 explanatory
 theory
 for
 the
 learning
 processes

facilitated
 by
 art-­‐based
 methods
 in
 management
 education
 (ABMs).
 Such
 theory
 is
 important

because
 managerial
 educators
 increasingly
 use
 ABMs,
 and
 without
 a
 well-­‐developed
 theory
 it

may
 be
 difficult
 to
 realise
 these
 methods’
 full
 potential.

Current
 research
 on
 ABMs
 uses
 theories
 from
 other
 fields
 but
 generally
 sees
 ABMs
 as
 methods

for
 making
 important
 information
 available
 for
 reflection,
 e.g.
 information
 about
 unconscious

assumptions,
 aesthetic
 experience,
 or
 non-­‐propositional
 or
 tacit
 knowledge.
 This
 shows
 that
 the

field
 is
 grounded
 in
 a
 representationalist
 view
 of
 cognition.

This
 view
 of
 cognition
 makes
 it
 difficult
 to
 explain
 certain
 themes
 in
 the
 research
 field,
 such
 as,

the
 importance
 of
 staying
 with
 the
 senses
 without
 reflecting,
 aesthetic
 agency,
 and
 the
 process
 of

making.
 I
 therefore
 asked:
 What
 insights
 can
 be
 gained
 from
 exploring
 ABMs,
 using
 theories

grounded
 in
 the
 embodied
 view
 of
 cognition,
 in
 particular
 Conceptual
 Metaphor
 Theory
 (CMT)

(Lakoff
 &
 Johnson,
 1999)
 and
 simulation
 theories
 (Barsalou,
 2008).

For
 the
 empirical
 work,
 I
 used
 an
 experimental
 design
 with
 60
 managers
 from
 Danish
 companies.

All
 participants
 selected
 problems
 from
 their
 work
 they
 perceived
 as
 important,
 yet
 unsolvable.

They
 were
 randomly
 divided
 into
 three
 groups:
 Two
 groups
 using
 different
 ABMs
 to
 address

problems
 and
 a
 comparison
 group
 where
 no
 ABM
 was
 used.

The
 experiment
 indicated
 that
 1)
 creating
 new
 metaphors
 for
 a
 problem
 based
 on
 different

sensory
 metaphors
 enabled
 the
 participants
 to
 import
 behaviour
 from
 contexts
 unrelated
 to
 the

problematic
 situation,
 and
 2)
 focusing
 on
 sensory
 experience
 enabled
 participants
 to
 remove

judgments
 about
 self
 or
 others.
 Furthermore,
 the
 experiment
 indicated
 that
 learning
 outcomes

reflected
 participants’
 experience
 of
 the
 concrete
 learning
 intervention.

These
 findings
 contribute
 to
 CMT
 by
 suggesting
 that
 it
 is
 possible
 to
 formulate
 relationships

between
 changes
 in
 metaphors
 and
 specific
 learning
 outcomes.
 They
 contribute
 to
 ABM
 by

suggesting
 that
 experiences
 that
 participants
 have
 during
 ABMs
 are
 later
 used
 as
 tools
 for

structuring
 other
 experiences
 –
 not
 merely
 as
 data
 for
 reflection.

Thank
 you
 to
 ESRC
 (Economic
 and
 Social
 Research
 Council)
 for
 funding

Award
 Ref
 :
 ES/IO27335/1
 Grant
 No
 :
 ES/19005271

 i

Acknowledgements

So
 many
 people
 have
 supported
 the
 Ph.D.
 project
 in
 many
 different
 ways
 and
 I
 would
 like
 to

thank
 everyone
 and
 to
 mention
 a
 small
 selection
 here.

First
 of
 all
 I’m
 deeply
 grateful
 to
 my
 supervisor
 and
 friend
 Donna
 Ladkin
 for
 her
 respectful,

engaged,
 supportive,
 and
 thorough
 supervision
 and
 for
 having
 the
 courage
 to
 take
 a
 student
 with

a
 highly
 unusual
 background
 in
 dance,
 music,
 and
 meditation
 as
 her
 Ph.D.
 student.

I
 would
 also
 like
 to
 thank
 my
 parents
 for
 dragging
 me
 to
 so
 many
 modern
 art
 museums
 when
 I

was
 a
 child
 and
 for
 making
 it
 possible
 for
 me
 to
 learn
 to
 draw,
 play
 music,
 and
 write
 poetry.
 I

think
 they
 got
 more
 than
 they
 bargained
 for
 in
 a
 son
 with
 a
 life
 long
 compulsion
 for
 not
 following

those
 inner
 currents,
 where
 goals
 cannot
 be
 stated
 before
 they
 have
 been
 reached.

Also
 warm
 thanks
 to
 the
 60
 managers
 who
 (again
 courageously)
 showed
 up
 for
 what
 they
 knew

would
 be
 an
 unusual
 process.
 Thanks
 for
 showing
 up
 –
 and
 for
 staying.

Thanks
 to
 all
 the
 academics,
 who
 supported
 me
 with
 conversations
 and
 feedback
 during
 the
 7

years
 I
 kept
 writing
 applications
 to
 various
 universities.
 To
 Lotte
 Darsø
 for
 helping
 me
 get

started.
 To
 those
 who
 (unknowingly)
 helped
 me
 re-­‐find
 my
 passion
 when
 I
 wanted
 to
 give
 up:

Rob
 Austin
 for
 his
 encouraging
 feedback
 on
 the
 project.
 To
 Ole
 Fogh
 Kirkeby
 and
 Sverre
 Raffnsøe

for
 their
 amazingly
 positive
 and
 supportive
 evaluation
 of
 my
 7th
 application.
 To
 David
 Barry,
 Ian

Sutherland,
 Jonathan
 Lupson,
 Kim
 Turnbull,
 Steve
 Taylor,
 and
 many
 others.
 And
 to
 the
 students

who
 helped
 me
 transcribe
 my
 many
 hours
 of
 interviews.

As
 many
 of
 my
 ideas
 were
 influenced
 by
 the
 spiritual
 teachings
 I
 have
 received
 over
 the
 years,
 I

also
 want
 to
 thank
 those
 who
 taught
 me
 in
 this
 area:
 Velusia
 Van
 Horssen,
 Jeremy
 Klein,
 Faisal

Muqaddam,
 Claudio
 Naranjo,
 Chökyi
 Nyima
 Rinpoche,
 and
 others.
 I
 will
 add
 special
 thanks
 to

Jeremy
 for
 helping
 me
 prepare
 the
 presentation
 for
 my
 interview
 at
 Cranfield
 SOM
 and
 for
 our

inspiring
 meetings.

Thanks
 to
 all
 my
 many
 different
 art
 teachers
 and
 colleagues.
 A
 special
 thanks
 to
 Boris
 Rønvig,

Sofie
 Hermind,
 Troels
 Boberg,
 and
 Jess
 Jensen
 for
 our
 stimulating
 and
 engaging
 conversations

about
 art.
 You
 are
 beyond
 a
 doubt
 my
 favourite
 people
 to
 both
 agree
 and
 disagree
 with.

My
 deepest
 gratitude
 and
 love
 to
 all
 the
 wonderful
 dancers,
 organisers,
 and
 teachers
 who
 have

invited
 me
 to
 teach
 in
 their
 cities
 and
 at
 their
 festivals
 and
 given
 me
 freedom
 to
 extend
 my

research
 in
 these
 artistic
 spaces
 (Daria
 Sukhorukova,
 Alex
 Postnikov,
 Inna
 Pavlichuk,
 Shantam

 i
 ii
Nabhraj,
 Inna
 Falkova,
 Sergey
 Golovnea,
 Alexandra
 Soshnicova,
 Tatiana
 Gordinscaia,
 Sasha

Bezrodnova,
 Maria
 Chiara,
 Antony
 Matsepa,
 Adrianna
 Pegorer,
 Gabriele
 Koch,
 Gloria
 Gómez

Mataix,
 Malin
 Zehaie,
 Aglaya
 Dateshidze,
 Katerina
 Meklis,
 Alexandra
 Alexandrova,
 Gunta
 Prūsāne,

Bo
 Norman,
 Silvina
 Amitabha,
 and
 Olya
 Petryk).
 A
 special
 thanks
 to
 my
 friend
 and
 colleague

Angela
 (Snapsik)
 Doniy
 for
 our
 profound
 talks,
 silences,
 dances,
 and
 laughs.

And
 finally,
 a
 thank
 you
 to
 Tate
 Modern,
 Somerset
 House,
 and
 National
 Gallery
 in
 London;
 for

having
 amazing
 and
 well-­‐curated
 collections
 with
 free
 admission,
 and
 to
 other
 museums
 and

cultural
 institutions
 around
 the
 world,
 from
 Hermitage
 in
 Saint
 Petersburg
 to
 Moma
 and

Guggenheim
 in
 New
 York
 to
 Louisiana
 and
 ‘Den
 Frie’
 Centre
 of
 Contemporary
 Art
 in
 Denmark.
 A

great
 deal
 of
 the
 present
 work
 was
 developed
 in
 front
 of
 sculptures
 and
 paintings
 in
 these
 places.

iv