Abstract
This chapter demonstrates how poem houses combine visual interpretation with poetic text to offer a sense-making process for exploring significant organisational experiences. They provide an opportunity to create a space to “break the silence” of organisational life, bringing as they do the visual and the poetic together to explore feelings and experiences. We begin by presenting an overview of organisational silence, and the use of poetry within organisational settings, before presenting how poem houses can be used as a method of research.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
References
Armitage, A. (2014). Poetry and the silence of working life. Tamara: Journal for Critical Organization Inquiry, 12(1), 23–37.
Clandinin, D. J., & Connelly, F. M. (2000). Narrative inquiry: Experience and story in qualitative research. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.
Coemans, S., & Hannes, K. (2017). Researchers under the spell of the arts: Two decades of using arts-based methods in community-based inquiry with vulnerable populations. Educational Research Review, 22, 34–49.
Cooper, R., & Burrell, G. (1988). Modernism, postmodernism and organisational analysis: An introduction. Organization Studies, 9(1), 91–112.
Darmer, P., & Grisoni, L. (2011). The opportunity of poetry: Report about poetry in organizing and managing. Tamara: Journal for Critical Organization Inquiry, 9(1–2), 1–13.
David, S., & McIntosh, D. (2005). The art of business. San Francisco: Berrett-Koehler Publishers.
Detert, J. R., & Edmondson, A. (2006). Everyday failures in organisational learning: Examining the high threshold for speaking up at work (Working Paper No. 6-024). Cambridge, MA: Harvard Business School.
Dewey, J. (1934). Art as experience. New York, NY: Penguin.
Diver, S. W. (2014). Giving back through time: A collaborative timeline approach to researching Karuk Indigenous land management history. Journal of Research Practice, 10(2), 1–7.
Donaghey, J., Cullinane, N., Dundon, T., & Wilkinson, A. (2011). Reconceptualising employee silence: Problems and prognosis. Work, Employment & Society, 25(1), 51–67.
Dunne, P. (2006). The narrative therapist and the arts (2nd ed.). Los Angeles, CA: Possibilities Press.
Edwards, M. S., Ashkanasy, N. M., & Gardner, J. (2009). Deciding to speak up or to remain silent following observed wrongdoing: The role of discrete emotions and climate of silence. In J. Greenberg & M. S. Edwards (Eds.), Voice and silence in organizations (pp. 83–109). Bingley: Emerald Publishing Limited.
Edwards, M. S., & Gardner, J. (2007). The role of emotions in employees’ decisions to report or remain silent about serious wrongdoing. In J. Greenberg & M. S. Edwards (Chairs), The role of emotion in individual decision-making. Symposium Presented at the Annual Meeting of the Academy of Management, Philadelphia, PA.
Faulkner, S. L. (2005). How do you know a good poem? Poetic representation and the case for criteria. Symposium Conducted at the First International Conference on Qualitative Enquiry, 29, 95–120.
Foster, V. (2012). The pleasure principle: Employing arts-based methods in social work research. European Journal of Social Work, 15(4), 532–545.
Freire, P. (1970). Pedagogy of the oppressed. Harmondsworth: Penguin.
Freire, P. (1972). Cultural action for freedom. London: Penguin.
Freire, P. (1974). Education: The practice of freedom. London: Writers and Readers Publishing Cooperative.
Geertz, C. (1973). The interpretation of cultures: Selected essays. New York: Basic Books.
Grisoni, L., & Collins, B. (2012). Sense making through poem houses: An arts-based approach to understanding leadership. Visual Studies, 27(1), 35–47.
Hanauer, D. I. (2010). Poetry as research. Amsterdam: John Benjamins Publishing Company.
Hiley, T. R. (2006). Finding one’s voice: The poetry of reflective practice. Management Decision, 44(4), 561–574.
Islam, G., & Zyphur, M. J. (2006). The sweetest dreams that labor knows: Robert Frost and the poetics of work. Management Decision, 44(4), 526–535.
Lafon, A. (1908). Poésies “Le réve d’un logis”. In J. Stilgoe (Ed.), Gaston Bachelard: The poetics of space (1994, p. 49). Boston, MA: Beacon Press.
Lather, P., & St. Pierre, E. (2013). Post-qualitative research. International Journal of Qualitative Studies in Education, 26(6), 629–633.
Lawrence, R. L. (2008). Powerful feelings: Exploring the affective domain of informal and arts-based learning. In John M. Dirkx (Ed.), Adult learning and the emotional self: New directions for adult and continuing education (No. 120, pp. 65–77). San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.
Leavy, P. (2009). Method meets art: Arts-based research practice. New York: Guildford Press.
Leggo, C. (2008). Astonishing silence: Knowing in poetry. In J. G. Knowles & A. L. Cole. (Eds.), Handbook of the arts in qualitative research (pp. 165–174). London: Sage.
Milliken, F. J., & Morrison, E. J. (2003). Shades of silence: Emerging themes and future directions for research on silence in organizations. Journal of Management Studies, 40(6), 1563–1568.
Milliken, F. J., Morrison, E. J., & Hewlin, P. F. (2003). An exploratory study of employee silence: Issues that employees don’t communicate upward and why. Journal of Management Studies, 40, 1453–1476.
Mitchell, G., Dupuis, S., Jonas-Simpson, C., Whyte, C., Carson, J., & Gillis, J. (2011). The experience of engaging with research-based drama: Evaluation and explication of synergy and transformation. Qualitative Inquiry, 17(4), 379–392.
Morgan, C. (2010). What poetry brings to business. Ann Arbor: Michigan University Press.
Pelias, R. (2004). A methodology of the heart: Evoking academic and daily life. Walnut Creek, CA: AltaMira Press.
Pinder, C., & Harlos, P. (2001). Employee silence: Quiescence and acquiescence as responses to perceived injustice. Research in Personnel and Human Resources Management, 20, 331–369.
Premeaux, S. F., & Bedian, A. G. (2003). Breaking the silence: The moderating effects of self-monitoring in predicting speaking up in the workplace. Journal of Management Studies, 40, 1537–1562.
Rich, A. (1995). What was found there: Notebooks on poetry and politics. London: Virago.
Richardson, L. (1997). Skirting a pleated text: De-disciplining and academic life. Qualitative Inquiry, 3, 295–304.
Schiuma, G. (2008). The value of arts for business. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Tangirala, S., & Ramanujam, R. (2008). Employee silence on critical work issues: The cross-level effects of procedural justice climate. Personnel Psychology, 61(1), 37–68.
Van Dyne, L. V., Ang, Soon, & Botero, Isabel C. (2003). Conceptualizing employee silence and employee voice as multidimensional constructs. Journal of Management Studies, 40, 1359–1392.
Vakola, M., & Bouradas, D. (2005). Antecedents and consequences of organisational silence: An empirical investigation. Employee Relations, 27(5), 441–458.
Waller, D. (1993). Group interactive therapy: Its use in training and treatment. London: Routledge.
Zander, R. S., & Zander, B. (2002). The art of possibility. London: Penguin.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2020 The Author(s)
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Armitage, A., Ramsay, D. (2020). A Poetic Approach to Researching Silence in Organisations. In: Ward, J., Shortt, H. (eds) Using Arts-based Research Methods. Palgrave Studies in Business, Arts and Humanities. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-33069-9_8
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-33069-9_8
Published:
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-030-33068-2
Online ISBN: 978-3-030-33069-9
eBook Packages: Business and ManagementBusiness and Management (R0)