Drama and organisational culture: an exploration of Aristotles Poetics as a conceptual dramatic framework in the design of organisational culture
- Title
- Drama and organisational culture: an exploration of Aristotles Poetics as a conceptual dramatic framework in the design of organisational culture
- Creator
- DSouza A.
- Description
- Purpose: The paper draws extensively from Aristotles Poetics, a classical work on the aesthetics of drama. Drawing from symbolic and thematic elements from folklore and mythology, this paper aims to illustrate how the Poetics can be referenced as an allegorical device in the design of culture-building strategies and interventions. Design/methodology/approach: This exploratory paper examines Aristotles Poetics and the range of creative expression this literature provides as a conceptual design framework for the development of a culture map in creating a distinctive organisational mythology. The Poetics articulates an Aristotelian perspective on theatre which infuses itself as a new language in offering structural and archetypical plot devices in the development of an organisational narrative. Findings: Findings from this explorative study can provide a creative roadmap to culture practitioners and leaders, to be used as a determining reference point in developing culture maps and change management interventions. Practical implications: Poetics has its detractors, notably Bertolt Brecht and Augusto Boal. Boal examines how Poetics promotes a narrative that suppresses free thinking and encourages a cult of feudal personality, therefore encouraging industrial and cultural oppression, which he rebelled against through the development of his Theatre of the Oppressed. This new kind of theatre discarded the Aristotelian model of thinking. Ideas proposed in the Poetics may also lend verisimilitude to the propagation of obsessive consumerism through the definitive symbolism it offers in the development of institutionalised personality cults. Originality/value: The Poetics as a creatively driven reflexive study provides a forward movement in the study of culture design templates. Its definitive allegorical devices and metaphors act as action principles through which an enterprise culture and its value system can be examined and developed. 2024, Emerald Publishing Limited.
- Source
- International Journal of Organizational Analysis, Vol-32, No. 10, pp. 2418-2435.
- Date
- 2024-01-01
- Publisher
- Emerald Publishing
- Subject
- Aristotles poetics; Culture and dramaturgy; Culture and symbols; Human resource development; Management philosophy; Organisational culture; Organisational design; Organisational theatre
- Coverage
- DSouza A., School of Business and Management, CHRIST (Deemed to be University), Pune Lavasa Campus, Lavasa, India
- Rights
- Restricted Access
- Relation
- ISSN: 19348835
- Format
- Online
- Language
- English
- Type
- Article
Collection
Citation
DSouza A., “Drama and organisational culture: an exploration of Aristotles Poetics as a conceptual dramatic framework in the design of organisational culture,” CHRIST (Deemed To Be University) Institutional Repository, accessed February 26, 2025, https://archives.christuniversity.in/items/show/12727.