Drawing in business and management research

Visual methodologies are slowly gaining acceptance in business and management research. However, the term visual methodology is largely perceived to reflect the production and or analysis of photographs, films, video and corporate visual artefacts (Rose, 2012). Participant produced drawings meanwhile remain ‘unusual’ in management and organisational research (Stiles, 2014). In this chapter we seek to draw together a number of disparate studies from a range of academic disciplines that have employed, or engaged with, participant-produced drawings as a form of collaborative inquiry. In so doing, we explore why there has been such reluctance in business and management to embrace drawing as a legitimate method of research; what drawing has to offer those who study organisations; what processes of drawing research have been developed and finally, what might the future hold for participant-produced drawing in business and management research.