IIT Madras study proposes art-based therapies to boost employee performance

Chennai: Art-based therapies may greatly help channel the creative and expressive sides of employees and boost productivity, according to a study released on Friday by the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Madras.

The research, published in the Journal of Organisational Change Management, advocates applying expressive arts techniques such as visual arts, music, movement, and theatre in the workplace to benefit employees, and consequently refine overall corporate culture.

“Arts have a significant history in many cultures and have the potential to shape thoughts, feelings, and behaviours. Compared to traditional training methods, experiential and artistic methods induce a positive mood, encourage creativity and innovation, and offer metaphorical and improvisational advantages to expand one’s thought and behaviour in the workplace,” said Prof. V. Vijayalakshmi, Department of Management Studies, IIT Madras.

In the paper, the team proposed ‘Intermodal arts-based intervention’ (IABI) as a business model to enhance the workforce agility of individual employees.

Varied art modalities such as visual arts, music, movement, and theatre can also help employees express their thoughts and behaviours, enhance their learning capacity, and enable thinking and understanding of complexities such as ethical dilemmas at work.

An arts-trained facilitator can gently navigate employees from resistance to acceptance.

“This study can be advantageous for multiple stakeholders as it can help firms move from a traditional training-based system to an experiential fashion. It may generate internal and external dialogues, new relationships, and thought patterns among employees, which can be leveraged toward a cordial, considerate, and collaborative work culture,” Janani M, from the Department of Management Studies, IIT Madras.

Vijayalakshmi said arts can “provide a safe psychological space for exploring an alternate reality."