Organization students and scholars are able to trace the rise of aesthetics in management studies through the papers presented in this volume. The papers are arranged for individual review or thematic explorations of aesthetic thinking; including review papers and articles that focus on fashion, narrative, theatre, music and craft. This volume is a major contribution for those seeking alternatives to rational and positivist perspectives on management and who are willing to explore those alternatives beyond the usual disciplinary bases.

This book contains an Open Access chapter This volume is the first systematic survey of the interface between the aesthetic and strategic domains. The “aesthetic” turn in strategy encompasses the use of aesthetic features and style to create value, as well as the ways in which the useful and the beautiful can be brought together.

Management Research: European Perspectives brings together experts in the field to take stock of European management research and reflect on its distinctiveness. Building on a successful series of papers published in the European Management Journal, this book contains international contributions providing a range of scholarly perspectives on the reality of European management research. The state of management scholarship has recently been a topic of great interest, focusing on such matters as the role of universities versus businesses in shaping research agendas, the so-called ‘rigour–relevance’ debate, the use of measurements in quality assessment of research outputs, the role of journal rankings, and the merits of the journal review system. Missing, however, is any discussion of what, if anything, constitutes a European approach to management research, how does it differ from other styles used in the rest of the world and why is there a need for such distinctiveness? It has been noted that European management scholars have a lower success rate for publishing theoretical papers than their North American counterparts, which is surprising given that Europe has been the cradle of many generative intellectual traditions. European scholars may be the heirs to those traditions, but they are sometimes criticised for failing to channel this legacy into authoritative theoretical contributions in elite US-based management journals. This book provides insightful contributions to the debate and offers critical reflections on what European-based scholars have to offer the study of management.

This edited collection presents the complex theory of kitsch from aesthetic and artistic points of view, transposed into managerial and organisational fields. In the spirit of management aesthetics, on the ground of humanistic management, the central aim of the volume is to show that kitsch is a common phenomenon not only in art and culture but also in management, and its conscious perception and mindful use may be beneficial for achieving organisational and managerial goals efficiently. Due to the diverse research problems covered by particular chapters, no unified methodology is applied in the book; every author applied an optimal method for the selected topic. However, due to the complex and metaphysical character of the kitsch phenomenon, the only common fundament of all chapters is using the kitsch experience theory (Szostak and Sułkowski, 2020). The dominant analytical approach is qualitative, with extensive use of case studies, comparative analyses, and ethnographic focus. Despite this, some chapters also include the application of the quantitative approach for the hypotheses’ verification. This book makes a giant step ahead of its competitors by implementing the kitsch theory, especially the kitsch experience theory in a broad spectrum of managerial and organisational fields like marketing, advertising, brand management, business communication, entrepreneurship, leadership, decision-making, human resource management, corporate social responsibility, city space management, management of technology and innovation, and organisational culture. It should be a must-read for researchers, academics, practitioners, and advanced students in these fields.

Ludwig Wittgenstein famously said, “Ethics is aesthetics.” It is unclear what such a claim might mean and whether it is true. This book explores contentious issues arising at the interface of ethics and aesthetics. The contributions reflect on the status of aesthetic en ethical judgments, the relation of aesthetic beauty and ethical goodness and art and character development. The book further considers the potential role art could play in ethical analysis and in the classroom and explores in what respects aesthetics and ethics might be intertwined and even mutually supportive.

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.