Atkinson, David ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2179-1652 (2026) Aesthetic Judgement and Responsible Management: A Material Entropic Dynamics Perspective. Art of Humanistic Management Journal, 2 (1). pp. 279-299.

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Abstract

Contemporary management scholarship increasingly recognises the importance of aesthetics—emotion, meaning, perception, and imagination—in organisational life. Yet these dimensions can still be positioned as supplementary to analytical and instrumental forms of decision-making. This paper offers a conceptual contribution by drawing on Material Entropic Dynamics (MED) to reconsider aesthetics as a condition of responsible management practice. Using a conceptual and theoretical analysis, the paper develops a dialogue between organisational aesthetics, humanistic management, and MED. It suggests that aesthetic attunement helps organisational actors recognise constraint, possibility, and the consequences of commitment before decisions become irreversible. In this sense, aesthetics is not merely concerned with expression, atmosphere, or style, but with how people perceive the range of viable futures available within a given situation. The paper contributes to humanistic management by linking aesthetic judgement to responsibility, dignity, and the preservation of possibility in organisational life. It offers a way of understanding some organisational failures not simply as technical or procedural breakdowns, but as failures to perceive constraint and possibility with sufficient care before action is taken.

Item Type:	Article
Status:	Published
DOI:	10.15804/ahmj.2026.01.13
Subjects:	B Philosophy. Psychology. Religion > B Philosophy (General) B Philosophy. Psychology. Religion > BH Aesthetics H Social Sciences > H Social Sciences (General)
School/Department:	York Business School
URI:	https://ray.yorksj.ac.uk/id/eprint/15502

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