Beyond Time: The Aesthetic Dimensions of Olivetti’s Legacy

Previous studies have mainly viewed aesthetics as a static organizational resource. In contrast, we investigate how aesthetics emerges, evolves, and endures over time. Using (visual) discourse analysis, we examine Olivetti, a major manufacturer of office products and a significant organization in twentieth-century Italian industrial and cultural history. By analyzing Olivetti’s historical artifacts, integrating visual images and written texts, we identify four aesthetic dimensions: ethical, executive, experiential, and mnemonic. These dimensions form a recognizable style in Olivetti’s artifacts, constituting the organization’s aesthetic legacy. This legacy connects individual and collective activities to the organization over time. Our study provides a dynamic perspective on aesthetics, highlighting its multidimensional and historical nature through artifact-mediated interactions that link the past with the present in understanding historical organizations.