The impact of aesthetic factors on labor productivity

Abstract

The subject of study is the mechanism of influence of aesthetic factor on job contentment and attitude to labor. The object of study is the socio-­cultural sphere of the enterprise in the context of its interaction with other subsystems. The purpose of the article is a theoretical and methodological generalization of the results of the empirical analysis carried out during testing the hypothesis of the significance of the emotions in the labor productivity. The research touches upon issues of economics, sociology, cultural studies, axiology and other disciplines. The main conclusions were obtained around their intersection. The relevance of the study is due to the fundamental uncertainty of labor efficiency problems at the corporate level. The supposed scientific novelty lies in the formulation and empirical verification of the mechanism of influence of the aesthetic perception on labor efficiency. The work was based on empirical data obtained in a longitudinal study conducted in 2001–2003 at a manufacturing enterprise implementing anti-crisis measures. Thus, the article contains both methodological generalizations and a description of the specific experience of their application. The main research methods were closed and open questionnaire surveys, focus groups, as well as numerical interpretation of expert opinions. An empirical analysis of labor productivity dynamics and labor attitudes in all professional groups revealed a sustainable effect of aesthetic actions on a change for the better in the emotional attitude to work and a positive revaluation of employee expectations. The following results were obtained during the study: a model for correcting attitudes to labor through aesthetic influences was developed; the conditions for achieving effectiveness and the limitations of the proposed approach were determined.