Management Practice Supporting Sustained Development In The German Art Collection

The focus of this thesis lies on understanding how approaches to management can support sustained development in German art museums. This is achieved by identifying best practices in the context of sustainable outcomes, examining how historical, political and cultural trajectories shape current approaches to management in Germany, through developing an understanding of how institutions are confronting challenges in their contemporary environment and to what effect their methods align with the established best practices. Using a mixed methods approach, in the form of a comparative collective case study, interview insight as well as a quantitative assessment of indicators across a sample group of arts institutions in Germany, a range of management practices and their relationship with both the social and economic dimension of sustainability is systematically considered in contexts relevant to the German art museum. This thesis thereby explores discussions surrounding management practice and sustainability but also examines the conceptual ambivalence and tensions that arise at the intersection of the arts and theories of value within a German art museum context. By taking into account the amalgamation of political, historical and cultural undercurrents informing management, policy decisions and practice, this research is able to gain an understanding of the systemic interactions affecting the potential for sustainable development as well as limiting factors shaping management practice such as the discursive formations which shape the ways in which professionals operate. This research finds that the interactions between systems understood by key agents as incompatible or competing act as a barrier to the implementation of best practices. Through presenting four concepts that can facilitate the alignment of such systems, this research contributes new perspectives on holistic approaches to management enabling more sustainable development. The insight generated hereby can help German art museums to better serve the communities they operate within.