The key to the considerations contained in this work is the authors’ metaphor of the organization: “organization as an artwork”, which – based on the achievements of aesthetics – allows us to look at the manager as a creator (true “artist”), and on organization’s stakeholders as recipients of this artwork. This new approach places management on a skeleton of Maria Gołaszewska’s concept of “aesthetic situation”. Thanks to this approach, the elements of aesthetic theories appearing in the management literature take the right context, and solutions borrowed from the theory of aesthetics bring a new quality to the theory of creativity in management. The inspiration to take up the topic was one of the authors own experience in both art and management. The research methodology is based on a qualitative review of the literature. The methodological approach is based on interdisciplinary and multi-paradigm approach taking into account the publications from areas of management and organization, as well as art and psychology. After applying the theory of aesthetics to the management process, it can be said that artistry should be considered as a kind of higher level of management; highest degree in gradation: administrator, manager, management artist. Santrauka Pagrindinis dėmesys šiame straipsnyje skiriamas autorių pateikiamai organizacijos metaforai „organizacija kaip meno kūrinys“, kuri, grindžiama estetikos pasiekimais, suteikia galimybę į vadybininką pažvelgti kaip į kūrėją (tikrą „menininką“), o į organizacijos suinteresuotuosius subjektus – kaip į tai, kam skirtas šis meno kūrinys. Šis naujas požiūris suteikia vadybai Marios Gołaszewskos „estetinės situacijos“ koncepcijos pagrindą. Remiantis šiuo požiūriu, estetikos teorijų elementai vadybai skirtai literatūrai suteikia tinkamą kontekstą, o sprendimai, pasiskolinti iš estetikos teorijos, į kūrybiškumo teoriją vadyboje įneša naują kokybę. Straipsnyje gvildenti šią temą paskatino vieno iš autorių tiek meninė, tiek vadybinė patirtis. Tyrimo metodologija grindžiama kokybine literatūros apžvalga. Metodologinio požiūrio pagrindą sudaro tarpdalykinis ir daugiaparadigmis požiūris, remiantis vadybos ir organizacijos, taip pat meno ir psichologijos sričių publikacijomis. Estetikos teoriją pritaikius vadybos procesui, gali būti teigiama, kad meniškumas turėtų būti traktuojamas kaip aukštesnio lygio vadybos tipas, aukščiausia pakopa administratoriaus, vadybininko, vadybos menininko gradacijoje. Reikšminiai žodžiai: estetinis diskursas, menininkas, meno kūrinys, kūrybiška asmenybė, kūrybiškumas, kūrėjas, vadybininkas. Keyword : aesthetic discourse, artist, artistic work, creative personality, creativity, creator, manager

Manager’s and artist’s professional identities seem to be opposite, but there are many indications that this understanding is not justified in reality. Despite the contradictions, these two identities can intersect. The paper aims to define the characteristics of the artists-managers’ identity. The object of the study was qualitative research (n = 22) conducted in the form of in-depth interviews with key informants from the international environment. The practical objective was to verify common and contradicted features of the artist’s and the manager’s identities among artists-managers to understand the possibilities of reducing the intra-psychic tensions and ways of fruitful paradoxical thinking among managers and negative consequences for personalities and organizations. The study reveals common characteristics between the artist’s and manager’s identities and describes artists-managers’ identity. Although artists-managers experience diversity between both identities, they do not see them as contrary; they use paradoxical thinking, being experts in using personal seemingly contradictory characteristics to achieve outstanding performance. Acting in paradoxical contexts and focusing on the positive aspects of seemingly contradictory personal qualities, they find nonstandard creative solutions. By trying to understand and implement their self-construction, there is the possibility to reduce the intra-psychic tensions and negative consequences of seemingly opposite identities or goals among individuals in organizations. There is a synergy between the manager’s and artist’s identities. Understanding the nature and attributes of artistic creativity, aesthetic theories and the phenomenon of artist-manager’s identity can be a valuable contribution to the practice of management and organizational life.

The book is the first worldwide publication of a complex theory of management aesthetics in humanistic management based on the aesthetics and arts approach allowing for a complete and systemic understanding of the management art and art management phenomena. The methodology is based on the critical literature review and empirical research applying qualitative, quantitative, and autoethnographic approaches. The main goal of this monograph is to create a holistic model that organises the issues of management aesthetics and shows the interdependence of the components of this model. The role of this model should be to perform a central function for a complete and systemic understanding of the phenomenon of management aesthetics, as well as to perform the function of a field based on which analysis of individual issues in the area of management aesthetics is conducted. The critical component of this holistic model is Maria Gołaszewska’s theory of the aesthetic situation. Two theses of the book are the following: (1) the theory of aesthetics and artistic practice have the potential to enrich the theory and practice of management with qualitative components through deep immersion in the world of values and (2) management theory and practice have the potential to enrich the theory of aesthetics and artistic practice with efficiency components. <!----> <!----> <!----> <!---->

Purpose: From a management point of view, the digitalization of the aesthetic experience may be considered in the context of the growth or loss of the potential of artistry and creativity in response to the form of participation in arts. Because of gender differences in perception qualities, this paper aims to evaluate the influence of the participation form (in-person or delivered digitally) in the aesthetic situation by gender-differentiated receivers on artistry and creativity change. The COVID-19 pandemic created additional need for this analysis. Design/methodology/approach: The quality of participation by men and women in art types (musical, performing, literary, audio-visual, visual) was assessed using the same ten criteria. Qualitative data analysis was based on an international sample (38 countries, n = 221). Findings: The form of participation in the arts determines the level of participation quality in the aesthetic situation for male and female receivers differently. There are significant gender differences in participation in particular types of art and gender differences between particular forms of participation in art types. Practical implications: The results should gain the interest of the following groups: 1) Art creators looking for the optimal means of distribution of artworks among gender-differentiated receivers; 2) Art managers and marketers for deeper understanding of gender-differentiated art receivers’ perspectives and their preferences about their form of participation form in the arts; 3) Art receivers to compare their opinions about how best to participate in the arts with the preferences of art receivers of a different gender. Originality/value: This study is the first research to assess the quality differences in the process of receiving the aesthetic situation regarding the form of participation in the arts.

Research on identity, its tensions and paradoxes have extensive literature and a large number of scientists exploring the subject. Our own experiences in the fields of art and management were the main arguments for the introduce of the concept of “artists-managers” and to undertake research in the area of artists-managers’ identity to find the conclusions for creativity. This article aims to describe the challenges in the identification of artists-managers, who can be crucial in understanding the creativity factor. To reach our goal, we run empirical qualitative research based on in-depth interviews with key-informants from Europe, Africa and North America as well as auto-analysis of an artist-manager identity. We answer the research question “Who is the artist-manager?”. We present our “creativity development model” on the base of artists-managers’ characteristics and we describe what kind of challenges should be considered in the empirical research of artists-managers. These challenges may be used as guidelines for artists-managers: for those who discover an artist-manager in their personality, for defined artists-managers to help to better understand their features, and for artists-managers’ followers to be more sensitive for their leaders’ characteristics. Our model may help to understand and develop the creativity of society.