Harmonious relations? Music at work in the Rowntree and Cadbury factories

Robertson, Emma; Korczynski, Marek; Pickering, Michael

doi:10.1080/00076790601170355

Cited by 10 publications

(3 citation statements)

References 10 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…In recent years, organizations have resorted to Arts Based Management, primarily using a single art form to pursue management goals. For instance, Music has been used to reduce the monotony of work and enhance productivity (Robertson et al., 2007), and storytelling has been used for change management (Boje, 1991). While each art is unique, participants can reap a synergetic value while integrating them into an intermodal intervention.…”

Section: Bolstering Agility Through Artsmentioning

confidence: 99%

An arts-based process to build Workforce agility

2023

JOCM

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

PurposeThe 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.Design/methodology/approachThe authors have employed conceptual description methodology to build propositions about the personal factors influencing Workforce agility and an arts-based intervention to enhance it.FindingsIntermodal 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.Practical implicationsThe 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.Originality/valueThis 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.

show abstract

Section: Bolstering Agility Through Artsmentioning

confidence: 99%

An arts-based process to build Workforce agility

2023

JOCM

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Barnett explains how two popular novelists tried to breathe life into the ailing British film industry after the First World War, while Milne looks at the early business use of telephones. Finally, Honeyman reviews the place of gender in British business history, a theme also prominent in Robertson et al. 's examination of the use of music in the workplace at Cadbury and Rowntree.…”

Section: (V) 1850–1945 Mark Freeman and Julian Greaves University Of mentioning

confidence: 99%

Review of periodical literature published in 2007

Pratt¹,

Schofield²,

French³

et al. 2009

The Economic History Review

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

“…Quakers were known for their hard work (King, 2014), which was successfully leveraged through strong bonds of both kinship and religion (Burton and Turnbull, 2019; Fincham, 2019; Sahle, 2018). While Quakerism has played a pivotal role in business history, and have made a distinctive contribution to that history, it has received relatively little attention in the management and organization history literature, although studies of 19th century Quaker firms by Burton et al (2019), Maclean et al (2020), Robertson et al (2007) and work on Cadbury by Rowlinson (1988, 1995, 1998) and Dellheim (1987) are notable exceptions. However, despite these contributions, we continue to know very little about Quakers and their involvement in commerce in the long 18th century, nor the way in which the Quaker network served as a basis for commercial organizing and coordination.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Religion and social network analysis: the discipline of early modern quakers

Fincham

Burton

2020

JMH

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Purpose The importance of networks has been established in the development of commerce and capitalism, with key concepts reflecting both the dynamic and permeable characteristics of networks. Such attributes are exemplified by religious networks, which have been typically dismissed in terms of economic contribution as being both risk-averse and bounded by ethical barriers imposed by theology. This paper aims to examine the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers) in the long 18th century to evidence the multi-plexity and density of connections and suggest that adherence to the Quaker discipline acted as a trust-based attribute and substituted for repeated iteration. Design/methodology/approach The archival investigation centres upon an analysis of “The Catalogue of Quaker Writing” and a close re-reading of the seminal text “Quakers in Science and Industry”, an authoritative account of Quaker firms and families in industry and commerce. By identifying multiple possible social network connections in Raistrick’s work, this paper reviewed and analysed The Catalogue of Quaker Writing to examine the presence or absence of these connections in the Quaker network in the long 18th century. Findings This paper shows how the Quaker network was an unusually dense network that benefited co-religionists by enabling commerce through its unique topography. In a period characterized by the absence of formal institutional mechanisms to regulate behaviour, Quaker discipline acted as a quasi-regulatory mechanism to regulate membership of the network and to govern member moral behaviour. Originality/value The Quakers offer an opportunity to examine an early modern network to gain important insights into key aspects of network topography. By using social network analysis, this paper shows how Quakers performed a multiplicity of roles, which encouraged multiple modes of contact between members of the society in a dense network of contexts, which, in turn, provided high levels of connectedness between individuals. This unique range of roles, shared among a relatively small group of individuals, ensured that the degrees of separation between roles were very few; similarly, the plethora of connections resulted in a density, which not only allowed for multiple ways to engage with other individuals but also ensured no individual would become a bottle-neck or indeed a gateway that would prevent access. This unique topography was also highly unusual in that it was permeable to any aspirant member upon acceptance of the discipline – neither poverty nor lack of social status was barriers to membership. This unusual network offered atypical commercial advantages for its members.

show abstract

Harmonious relations? Music at work in the Rowntree and Cadbury factories

Cited by 10 publications

References 10 publications

An arts-based process to build Workforce agility

An arts-based process to build Workforce agility

Review of periodical literature published in 2007

Religion and social network analysis: the discipline of early modern quakers

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About