When reporting their studies, management researchers traditionally use structured verbal, written, and tabular means, which primarily target cognitive abilities. Through this workshop we invited participants to contemplate and experiment with alternative ways of reporting research as a way to facilitate broader, more participatory and emancipatory engagement. More than 50 participants attended the session.
In the session, we discussed the use of creative mediums ranging from visual (e.g., collage, painting) to performing (e.g., film, music) to literary arts (e.g., poetry, narrative). These mediums help to display information in an evocative, disruptive, and yet, informative way. Starting with a short improvisation activity as an icebreaker, the PDW offered examples of disruptive, creative ways of reporting research, discussed the rationale for constructing such an interface between research and creative mediums, and finally, through a hands-on Pecha Kucha activity, invited the audience to experiment by creatively reporting their own research.
By the end of the workshop, participants had a basic tool- kit of creative mediums, which could be added on to, adopted, or adapted to suit various reporting requirements. By building bridges between creative mediums and research, we simultaneously challenged assumptions and status-quo in management research reporting as well as addressed the 2017 AOM theme “At the interface”.
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*Adapted from the abstract published in Academy of Management Annual Meeting 2017 program.
LAKSHMI B. NAIR 