Look who's talking! Aesthetic corporate communication in a dedifferentiated society

Abstract

As a researcher in the field of art and aesthetics, I was surprised to find so much arty and beautiful vocabulary in the field of economics, so many aesthetic approaches in marketing and organizational theory: The aesthetic or beautiful organization (Strati 1999, Dickinson and Svensen 2000, De Paoli 2003), the expressive organization (Schultz, Hatch and Holten Larsen 2000), organizations as theatre (Mangham and Overington 1987), aesthetic management (Thyssen 2003), the aesthetics of marketing (Schmitt and Simonsen 1997) and aesthetics as organizational theory (Guillet De Monthoux 1998). I saw my own field divided and conquered by a capitalism I once learned was the big enemy of the modern philosophy of aesthetics. Concepts matter. Why are these concepts used in organizational theory and marketing subjects?