'Bach in Business': using the fugal form of J. S. Bach and associated rhetorical concordances as a metaphor for organisational culture.

ABSTRACT:

Johann Sebastian Bach's fugal form (Bachian Archetype) epitomises the values (Core Values) of decoro, sprezzatura, and grazia, values that largely define the weltanshaung of sixteenth, seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. Decoro, sprezzatura, and grazia appear antithetical to the structural and cultural raison d'être of contemporary business organisations.

By deriving metaphor from the Bachian Archetype, this study uses a hermeneutic-interpretive methodology to identify concordances between the Core Values underlying the Bachian Archetype and modern business culture.

In line with pronouncements made by eighteenth century music theorists, the relationship between music and rhetoric is explored.

Drawing on knowledge both of the Bachian Archetype and rhetorical meaning, a specially designed questionnaire was created. The questionnaire tests the degree of alignment between the Core Values of the Bachian Archetype, and the Core Values of a selected business organisation (Fugal Alignment). Within the context of the selected business organisation, the questionnaire was deployed in one-on-one semi-structured interviews with five key business executives.

Data arising from the interviews is analysed using the Bachian Archetype as metaphor, Core Values of the Bachian Archetype, and selected aspects of rhetoric. Three classifications are established to indicate the degree of Fugal Alignment: i) congruent (a reasonable correlation between the fugal metaphor and the respondent's summary), ii) incongruent (the fugal metaphor and the respondent's summary is dissimilar but not absent), and iii) absent (no relationship exists between the summary data and the fugal metaphor).

The study seeks to identify the degree of Fugal Alignment between the Core Values of the Bachian Archetype and the Core Values of the business organisation's culture.

© Stuart Campbell 2005