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The purpose of this paper is to focus on arts-based interventions as a management tool for personal, team and organisational development. How have management teams implemented art in their organisations, and toward what end? The literature has focused predominantly on a single case, creating many possibilities of constructing arts-based interventions. Yet, a typology is still missing. This paper examines various arts-based interventions and their underlying principles from a business perspective.

The paper is based on a systematic review of the literature in English and German, with special consideration for articles and books within the field of business.

The typology presented in this paper, based on a mapping of the field, should contribute to a more coherent understanding of arts-based interventions. My goal is to provide researchers with a more structured perspective for approaching this academic area. Furthermore, the findings suggest that over and above the various types of arts that can be introduced to organisations, there are three basic principles for the achievement of this goal.

This paper presents a mapping of the cases in literature on arts-based interventions and presents a coherent understanding of ways of bringing art into organisations.

The three underlying principles presented in this paper should assist practitioners in designing arts-based interventions for specific problems.

This paper provides assistance to consultants, business executives, leaders, managers, researchers and students for understanding the basics of arts-based interventions. Furthermore, it provides a structure for the body of literature on cases of arts-based interventions.

In the present study an art-based leadership intervention has been evaluated in comparison to a conventional leadership development program. The purpose of this paper is to explore effects on two aspects of personality, namely Sense of Coherence and Agreeableness, as well as on two aspects of leadership behaviors evaluated by subordinates – Laissez-faire and Capacity to Cope with stress.

Participating leaders were randomized to two-year-long leadership programs, with follow-up at 12 and 18 months. The art-based program built on an experimental theater form, a collage of literary text and music, followed by discussions. The comparison program utilized more conventional pedagogical methods.

Leaders in the art-based group, compared to the leaders in the conventional group, showed a significant improvement in Sense of Coherence (stress resilience) and Agreeableness (pro-social behavior). Likewise, the leaders receiving art-based intervention showed a significant improvement in leadership behavior evaluated by subordinates; Laissez-faire decreased (increased responsibility) and Capacity to Cope with stress increased, while the opposite was found in the leaders in the conventional group.

This study represents a new, cross-disciplinary approach. To the knowledge, previous research has not attempted a comparison between art-based leadership approach and a more conventional education. The art-based intervention seems to be more effective in stimulating long-term favorable changes in leaders’ behavior than the conventional program. These positive findings are consistent with earlier findings from this research regarding improved neurobiological resilience and mental health in subordinates of the leaders receiving art-based intervention.

The world of work is constantly evolving such that the Workforce in the previous era was driven by the need for stability and is now driven by the desire for creative disruption. While firms must respond to the challenges and dynamics continuously, employees must be ready for any upcoming change to progress despite the turbulence and attain a competitive position. This paper's focal theme is Workforce agility – the ability of employees to respond to and make the most out of changes. Studies on the personal factors affected by changes, in turn, influencing Workforce agility have been scarce. The authors propose a conceptual model with propositions to address this gap. Additionally, the authors propose an employee-centric experiential training practice to foster agility.

The authors have employed conceptual description methodology to build propositions about the personal factors influencing Workforce agility and an arts-based intervention to enhance it.

Intermodal arts-based intervention (IABI) can influence employees' epistemic curiosity, which aids with managing ruminative thoughts, thus enhancing Workforce agility, while dispositional joy moderates this relationship.

The proposed “Intermodal Arts-Based Intervention (IABI)” can help firms move from a traditional training-based approach to an experiential one to foster their Workforce's agile capacities. Considerations for its implementation are explained.

This study is one of the first attempts to integrate multiple art forms as a change management practice. The conceptualized model also brings out the adaptive and maladaptive aspects of epistemic curiosity and rumination and the role of joy in promoting agile behaviors.

Arts-based cooperations between business and the arts create innovative solutions for companies by introducing artistic practices. Cooperations of this nature are predominantly prepared and implemented by intermediaries who act as “matchmakers” and bridge the cultural clash. The paper aims to discuss these issues.

For the present study on the function of such intermediaries, qualitative data material from interviews and case studies on arts-based cooperations was collected and analysed.

This paper analyses the results from an institutional economics perspective. By drawing on transaction cost theory and information economics, the findings are transformed into an intermediation theory of arts-based cooperations. The theory postulates that intermediaries are able to reduce transaction costs as well as the risks which are contingent on asymmetric information. Involving an intermediary produces cost advantages compared to direct contact between companies and artists.

The analysis illuminates an important but heretofore neglected aspect of arts-based initiatives thus providing an indication for their successful implementation.

Although there is a growing evidence base for the value of psychosocial and arts-based strategies for enhancing well-being amongst adults living with dementia, relatively little attention has been paid to literature-based interventions. The purpose of this paper is to assess the impact of shared reading (SR) groups, a programme developed and implemented by The Reader Organisation, on quality of life for care home residents with mild/moderate dementia.

In total, 31 individuals were recruited from four care homes, which were randomly assigned to either reading-waiting groups (three months reading, followed by three months no reading) or waiting-reading groups (three months no reading, followed by three months reading). Quality of life was assessed by the DEMQOL-Proxy and psychopathological symptoms were assessed by the Neuropsychiatric Inventory Questionnaire.

Compared to the waiting condition, the positive effects of SR on quality of life were demonstrated at the commencement of the reading groups and were maintained once the activity ended. Low levels of baseline symptoms prevented analyses on whether the intervention impacted on the clinical signs of dementia.

Limitations included the small sample and lack of control for confounding variables.

The therapeutic potential of reading groups is discussed as a positive and practical intervention for older adults living with dementia.

Collaboration between creative professionals (artists and designers) and companies has become more prominent. In so-called “crossovers,” indicated with the acronym CoCreaCO (collaboration of creative professionals with companies) when they concern specific crossover of creative professionals with companies, societal and organizational challenges such as becoming more innovative are addressed through multidisciplinary collaboration that increasingly embraces and exploits the distinctive way of thinking and working of artists and designers. Over the past years, several scholars focused their research on the effect of artistic interventions or arts-based initiatives (ABIs) and design thinking in organizations. Hardly any research has been done on the conditions (organizational and individual factors) that are conducive to ABIs in organizations, such as trust and common ground. The central question for this study is which conditions foster successful collaboration between creative professionals and organizations in crossovers. For this study, the conditions for collaboration between creative professionals and four Dutch organizations were studied by interviewing ten creative professionals, project managers and employees who worked together, following which a survey of 60 questions was filled in by 41 Dutch respondents. This study shows that despite the differences between the disciplines of creative professionals and employees for this type of crossover, both disciplines requested quite similar conditions for collaboration. Both creative professionals and employees should realize and encourage trust and common ground by focusing on an open process and outcome, a shared creative process started with a shared problem. Experience with this type of collaboration, art disciplines, the role and qualities of the artist (individual factors) as well as the organization's sector seem to influence neither expectations of collaboration nor the intention to engage in this type of cooperation in the future.

Both ten employees (project managers) and creative professional(s) with whom the organization cooperated were interviewed (four case studies, semistructured interviews). Thereafter, 41 respondents have been filled in a survey.

Successful cooperation can be explained by six concepts of determinants, which are briefing, qualities of creative professionals, organizational qualities, organization factors and common ground. More particular, creative professionals' independency and their ability to render observations and to reflect of these and organization's role by informing employees and organizing a clear work process need to be addressed before or during collaboration.

past years, many scholars focused their research on the effects of artistic interventions or ABIs and design thinking in organizations. There is hardly any research on the conditions that are conductive to artistic interventions in organizations such as trust and common ground.

The competitive luxury market raises higher requirements for luxury brands to effectively involve young generations in creating and endowing meanings to products, services and experiences. Several researchers suggest that art experiences create a fertile source of co-creation practices for cultural customers as they could engage in cognitive, emotional and imaginal activities to endowing meanings to products or services. Hence, bridging art and luxury is of significance for luxury brands to create value and engage their customers. This chapter delivers the essence of value for luxury brands and their customers and focusses on how luxury brands deploy art-based initiatives as a favourable technique in which value co-creation takes place.

Interdisciplinary approaches to health education are becoming increasingly common. Here, the authors describe an arts-based approach designed by academics and artists to both supplement the study of mental illness and support the individual mental health of undergraduate and postgraduate university students, by raising the visibility of mental illness in an innovative way.

Through workshops, university students were guided in a sensory and physical way to discuss psychological health and vulnerability. This was followed by the creation of physical representations of mental distress through art pieces.

Students were able to design their own art pieces and discuss mental health issues in an open and creative way. Students reported that the arts-based initiative was beneficial to their practice as future professionals and provided a holistic learning experience. At the same time, artists were able to generate powerful images which facilitated further discussions within the faculty.

This project provides an innovative model for workshops which could be employed to raise the visibility of common mental health disorders among university students while providing a safe space to discuss and support wellbeing. Additionally, variations could be implemented to enhance the teaching of affective disorders within a university curriculum.

This paper presents the results of collaboration between academics and artists, who together generated an innovative way to both support students' mental health and provide an alternative way to supplement experiential learning about common mental health conditions such as anxiety and depression.

Precise and accurate observation, what we see, and the perception of emotion, what we sense and feel, lead to a more reliable evaluation and thus to better management of complex situations. Therefore, perception, observation and judgement are critical success factors in fostering innovation leadership at individual and team levels. This chapter outlines how these aspects need to be considered to facilitate the discovery, reflection and implementation of new ideas and solutions. We look at scientific areas such as neuroscience and positive psychology and apply the research to different professional areas. Based on this, we introduce ‘Coaching with Art’ as a method to train perceptiveness as a quality for self and team leadership to better cope with the challenges and opportunities of innovation processes.

The refugee journey is fraught with challenges before, during and after resettlement. There is a critical need for mental health support upon arrival, and refugees face language, cultural and logistical barriers. Arts-based therapies are a promising approach to mitigating such barriers. The purpose of this study was to elicit professional stakeholder perspectives on mental health challenges among refugees, the value of arts-based programs and future directions.

The authors conducted three 90-min focus groups with 19 professional stakeholders in North Carolina, USA. This included mental health professionals, professors and community services/resettlement workers. Participants were identified from professional networks and snowball sampling. Each group was held by videoconference, audio recorded and transcribed. Data were analyzed through a team-based approach using applied thematic qualitative analysis.

Interviewees described a need for targeted, culturally compatible mental health services for refugee families, including trauma-informed, family-focused services with language interpretation. Arts-based therapies were viewed as highly acceptable and culturally responsive approaches for understanding distress and building resilience and less stigmatizing than traditional mental health services. Services in schools and community settings would further reduce stigma and minimize logistical barriers. Participants identified needing strong, culturally sensitive assessment tools to measure treatment progress as a key future direction.

The study offers novel insights into the value of arts-based approaches and considerations for program development. The next phase of the project will obtain the perspectives of refugee parents and children to understand client preferences for arts-based therapies.