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Abstract
Considering that Canada only will be short nearly one million qualified workers in 2020 and that already in 2005, 40 to 60% of the workers belonging to the baby boomers generation are retiring, it is easy to forecast that the innovation capabilities of enterprises will soon become a development issue for society. Along with that, it has been noticed for a few years already that the relative value of knowledge and creativity in capitalist economies has increased, positioning the creation industries at the edge, in the forefront of the avant-garde. In fact, the artistic creation activities would epitomize the most advanced expression of new ways of production and the new employment relationships engendered by the recent mutations of capitalism. To learn to innovate thus becomes a priority and, as good practices emerge generally from the key leaders of an industry, the world’s most applauded circus, the Cirque du Soleil, represents an ideal ground for practice renewal regarding innovation. More specifically, focusing specifically on the case of artistic innovation, this study shows how the interaction between managers and artists unfolded in this circus during the first phases of an architectural project which would lead to the construction of an arts, leisure and hospitality center, one of the enterprise key business units.
This thesis presents the results of a case-based research done in an emerging field of management studies: the flow between arts and management. From a multidisciplinary perspective involving an ethnographic methodology and an aesthetic approach of organizations, this research focuses on the co-creation of knowledge among artists and managers involved in a multi-million dollar project. The study addresses the problematic of innovation through management and artistic practices by drawing from organizational studies as well as from anthropology and sociology, to understand how these two distinct cultural groups work and learn in action and how their collective practices are created, shared and used. To give life to an ethnography which give access to these master-builders culture, imagination, way of life and practices, 26 artists and managers have been followed over a nine month period, more than 5500 pages of documents and 20 hours of video. The shared cognition between these actors from the circus arts creative industry is described through seven key practices (tribe, dialogue, story telling, innovation, action, rapport and memory) presented from a managerial perspective as well as from the human sciences. Apart from a methodology which integrates the aesthetical approach on organisations, a new definition of the hidden face of innovation is proposed, along with a conceptual dynamic model based on the Cirque du Soleil innovative practices. Creative and aesthetic, they are a source of inspiration for management. In this way, this research contributes to management studies and the development of creative management practices.
