Organization, Decoration

Bibliographic Data

ID20500846
AuthorsJulie Wolfram Cox (0000-0002-5738-9745, RMIT University, corresponding author), Stella Minahan (Deakin University, corresponding author)
Year2005
Volume12
Issue4
Pages529-548
Publication date2005-07-01
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueOrganization (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1350-5084 • E-ISSN: 1461-7323
PublisherSAGE Publications (PUBLISHER • US)
DOI10.1177/1350508405052758
OpenAlexW4239648689
LanguageEN
Citations received4
References cited25

While organizational decoration has been of interest to those who study organizational artefacts, we suggest four ways in which decoration is worthy of fuller attention in organizational studies. First, decoration, ornament and embellishment are not only what we see, but also what we do as managers, consultants, writers and designers of both physical and project spaces. Second, and drawing on the art/craft debate, we note that decoration occupies contested and even liminal aesthetic position and that ‘decorative art’ lies betwixt and between fine art and craft. Neither fully accepted nor fully marginalized, decoration is ‘only applied’ and embodies shifting tensions between form and function. Third, we review the particular negotiations of these tensions at the Bauhaus, a controversial and highly influential aesthetic organization in early 20th century Germany. Fourth, we suggest that decoration, like disorganization, provides a source of complication for organizational studies that are neither pure nor parsimonious

Aesthetics · Art · Craft · Liminality · Negotiation · Social science · Sociology · Visual arts · Management and Organizational Studies · Management Theory and Practice