Mapping the impact of arts-based initiatives

Citation

Giovanni Schiuma, P. (2010), "Mapping the impact of arts-based initiatives", Strategic HR Review, Vol. 9 No. 1. https://doi.org/10.1108/shr.2010.37209aab.010

Mapping the impact of arts-based initiatives

Article Type: Resources From: Strategic HR Review, Volume 9, Issue 1

Arts-based Initiatives: Transform Your Business and Workforce, London, UK, 27 July 2009

According to Harvard Business Professor Rob Austin: “The economy of the future will be about creating value and appropriate forms, and no one knows more about the processes for doing that than artists” (Adler, 2006). Successful twenty-first-century organizations will be those able to develop competencies to manage their energy and emotional states as well as their rational-analytical dynamics (Schiuma, 2009). Dimensions such as passion, emotions, hope, moral, imagination, aspirations and creativity are now being established as the new drivers of value in businesses.

Arts & Business, the agency that sparks partnerships between commerce and culture, commissioned Professor Giovanni Schiuma to provide a comprehensive map of the value, role and impact of art initiatives towards creating competencies around the management of energy and emotional states as part of business value drivers. This research clearly shows the essential impact of arts-based initiatives (ABIs) on human resources and infrastructure, through the development of an arts value matrix, which maps the degree of impact the arts have on the intangible and knowledge assets of business – the keys to any successful organization. This provides the beginnings of an approach to assessment.

The matrix maps the impacts of ABIs within an organization and identifies the possible organizational value or benefits dimensions of an ABI. It has been built on the dimensions of people change and organizational infrastructure development. Accordingly, the categories of the matrix identify the possible impacts that an ABI can have in terms of benefits related to people change and/or of the benefits linked to an organizational infrastructure development. The nine categories of benefits are: entertainment, galvanizing, inspirational, sponsorship, environment, training and personal development, investment, bonding and transformation.

It is possible to adopt a variety of ABIs in order to support organizational development and business performance improvements. The arts value matrix identifies the possible benefits of ABIs, though it makes no value judgments on which are more useful or successful; instead, it shows that ABIs have polyvalent and multiple effects. Organizations should therefore decide against their specific strategic and business needs, which would be the best benefit area to address. Recognizing the polyvalent nature of ABIs, a key factor influencing their value is the way in which they are managed. To get the highest possible impact, it is fundamental that ABIs are supported and championed by senior management. Moreover, a positive attitude and affirmative involvement of managers are crucial in order to move ABIs along the value axis from low impact to high impact, and from individual to organizational effects.

Professor Giovanni Schiuma, commissioned by Arts & BusinessBased at the University of Basilicata (Italy) and is a visiting research fellow at the Cranfield School of Management.