Doing the right thing? Managerial ethics in social engaged arts

Who, if anyone, is responsible for ensuring arts organisations working in Social Engaged Arts do the ‘right thing’ in a ‘good’ way and how is it determined? Although established as a distinct field managerial ethics (and indeed business ethics) has rarely been applied to the study of arts and cultural organisations or their management. Using interviews and Mission/Vision analysis, this chapter applies a managerial ethics lens to the ethical decision-making and rationalities of the artistic and executive leads (the ‘managers’) and arts organisations in Northern Ireland who work in or deliver Social Engaged Arts (by their definitions: ‘community arts’ and ‘participatory arts’). It examines what they consider ethical concerns and what influences their ethical decision-making. In doing so, we articulate insights to the relational and values-based approaches adopted to decision-making, the ethics of self-exploitation and disillusion, and the ambiguous space between personal and organisational responsibility and politics. The work thus fills a gap in more traditional business ethics inquiry while at the same time opening up new considerations in the field of arts management, leadership and governance. It demonstrates how arts and cultural organisations and their managers in this context prioritise a sense of ‘common good’, their beneficiaries and artists over artform and pursuit of social justice. This work opens up debate and fuels understanding of the structural inhibitions around ideals of shared decision-making, collectivism and ethicality at individual, organisational and sector levels. In this way, it may enhance managers’ and organisations’ capacity to refashion ways to resist neoliberalism while also highlighting contradictions between ‘good’ governance, accountability and lived reality.