ABSTRACT
The purpose of this chapter is to inquire about silence in cultural management and the different characteristics of silence in cultural organizations. The study used two field visits and four semi-structured interviews, with an interpretive approach that falls within the tradition of organizational aesthetics, also known as aesthetic understanding of organizational life. The main findings are that silence in arts organizations must be handled with care, and sometimes strictly enforced. It is not only a part of the programming or the representation of cultural products, it is also desirable as part of an organization’s personal working space. It is valued for its aesthetical, spiritual, and creative qualities. Silence is an aspect of cultural organizations that is often overlooked in management literature. When it is noticed, it is often misrepresented through the conceptual mechanisms of mainstream management theory, which only regards the negative characteristics of silence. Yet in arts and cultural organizations, such as museums, theatres, and concert halls, silence is often an important part of the aesthetic experience and the premise of meaning, communication, and interpretation. This important element of cultural organizations has not been thoroughly researched, and empirically grounded work on the uses and abuses of situated silences is lacking.
