The International Journal of Professional Management - ISSN 20422341
Beating the Blues: Using Blues Music to Improve Organisational Performance
Volume 12, Issue 3, May 2017
Jack Pinter
jack@square1now.com
Jack Pinter (B.A. Wesleyan University (USA) is Director of Square One Partnership, a learning and development consultancy that works with organisations, groups and individuals. He has toured with Chicago blues legend Joe Williams, diva Marianne Faithfull and Academy Award winner Tim Robbins, appearing at blues, rock and jazz festivals all over the world.
Abstract
This paper demonstrates the value for organisations and their employees of employing a practice called Beating the Blues, which invites participants to express and share the individual and collective challenges they face at work through writing and singing their own blues songs. I show how bottling up workplace blues through the common employee practices of suppressing and regulating authentic emotional states can have a negative impact on personal well-being and happiness at work. I explore the links between employee happiness and organisational performance, and suggest how the Beating the Blues practice can complement the efforts many organisations are currently making to improve employee satisfaction, engagement and performance. I discuss blues music in the context of African-American history and describe why the distinctive features of this music can provide an inspirational model for workplace resilience and resourcefulness. I also propose that this unusual practice can serve as a powerful and effective qualitative organisational diagnostic tool.
Keywords
Negative and positive affect, emotion regulation, emotional labour, positive and negative arousal, emotional intelligence, work song, 12 bar blues, blues shuffle, repeated phrase blues
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