Music as a Metaphorical Aid for Strategic Development

Abstract

This chapter dwells on the use of music as a metaphorical tool to help organisations grapple with the intricacies of working within an environment that is unstable and more and more prone to rapid changes and the subsequently induced alteration of company focus and direction. This is not to say that strategic planning or delivery is musical but to provide the reader with a distinct and intriguing cognitive aid. Three types of music are considered (classical orchestral, popular music (pop), and jazz). Each metaphor helps to reveal alternative approaches to leadership but more specifically strategic development. This is, moreover, not offered as a template for success just the building of possibilities by using music as a different lens through which to scrutinise the strategic field. Areas highlighted in this reflective chapter are the role music can play to help understand the role of staff collaboration and learning. In addition, an understanding of the ways in which humans remember and relate to dynamic organisational life and the need for anchor-points to help with memory. Music provides both the possibilities of collaboration and soloing, or, put in another way, leadership, and followership as well as the ways in which listening, unlearning and collaboration aid the development of a more emergent, flexible dynamic organisational strategic development and policy.

Citation

Turner, A.F. (2023), "Music as a Metaphorical Aid for Strategic Development", Sund, K.J., Galavan, R.J. and Gustafsson, R. (Ed.) Cognitive Aids in Strategy (New Horizons in Managerial and Organizational Cognition, Vol. 6), Emerald Publishing Limited, Leeds, pp. 87-97. https://doi.org/10.1108/S2397-521020230000006006