Creative Labour: Content, Contract and Control

Smith, Chris; McKinlay, Alan

doi:10.1007/978-1-137-12173-8_2

Cited by 29 publications

(23 citation statements)

References 31 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…Extending previous authors' claims that managerial authority in the cultural industries does not rely on strict Taylorist strategies of control (Smith and McKinlay, 2009a), I argue that managerial power rests on their ability to demonstrate understanding and involvement in the creative process. In some cases, idiosyncratic differences in artistic values and tastes spur workers to distance themselves from their managers and paint superiors as lacking taste or artistic integrity, weakening workers' respect for their managers.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 53%

Dealing with reality: Market demands, artistic integrity, and identity work in reality television production

Wei

2012

Poetics

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Cultural industry workers at times compromise the values and tastes that are important parts of their artistic identities to accommodate commercial demands. I argue that workers resolve frustrations that arise from such compromises through identity work, individuals' active construction of their identities in social contexts. Using ethnographic data from fieldwork at a reality television production company, I describe two identity work strategies, distancing and evaluative tweaking, that workers use to maintain their artistic integrity despite producing work that does not meet their standards of quality. The manner through which these strategies emerged during micro social interaction differed between managers and non-managers. Managers used distancing and evaluative tweaking to simultaneously do identity work and regulate their employees' identities when justifying decisions that threatened shared values and tastes. On the other hand, employees distanced themselves from managers while venting to colleagues about managers' decisions that conflicted with their idiosyncratic values and tastes. These dynamics are illustrated through a setting that has received insufficient ethnographic attention, reality television production. Some reality television workers prefer to portray "real" and "authentic" situations. These workers employ identity work strategies to maintain artistic integrity when distorting reality to create the drama and conflict they consider marketable. AbstractCultural industry workers at times compromise the values and tastes that are important parts of their artistic identities to accommodate commercial demands. I argue that workers resolve frustrations that arise from such compromises through identity work, individuals' active construction of their identities in social contexts. Using ethnographic data from fieldwork at a reality television production company, I describe two identity work strategies, distancing and evaluative tweaking, that workers use to maintain their artistic integrity despite producing work that does not meet their standards of quality. The manner through which these strategies emerged during micro social interaction differed between managers and nonmanagers. Managers used distancing and evaluative tweaking to simultaneously do identity work and regulate their employees' identities when justifying decisions that threatened shared values and tastes. On the other hand, employees distanced themselves from managers while venting to colleagues about managers' decisions that conflicted with their idiosyncratic values and tastes. These dynamics are illustrated through a setting that has received insufficient ethnographic attention, reality television production. Some reality television workers prefer to portray "real" and "authentic" situations. These workers employ identity work strategies to maintain artistic integrity when distorting reality to create the drama and conflict they consider marketable.

show abstract

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 53%

Dealing with reality: Market demands, artistic integrity, and identity work in reality television production

Wei

2012

Poetics

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…While other industries may not be characterized by the recurrent hiring of project-based work, they still value personal recommendations (see Granovetter, 1995, for a classic study of getting a job). It may be that film and TV represent a more intense example of processes observed elsewhere (Smith & McKinlay, 2009) so the conclusions we draw about the way networks confined advantage to privileged groups will have wider resonance, as will the development of the network literature. Our principal contribution here is the empirical account of the way in which this occurred and the reasons some informants succeeded despite disadvantage.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 97%

Social Capital and Networks in Film and TV: Jobs for the Boys?

Grugulis

Stoyanova

2012

Organization Studies

132

133

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Social capital has been hailed as a means of virtuous, effective and enjoyable productivity through which firms can flourish. But it also confines advantage to network members and discriminates against non-members. This paper, drawing on detailed qualitative research into work in the UK film and TV industry, reveals the advantages and the disadvantages of social capital. Social capital aided recruitment, policed quality standards and ensured behavioural norms with the sort of speed and flexibility it would be hard to identify in other forms of organizing. However, it also advantaged white, middle-class men and ensured that middle-class signals came to be proxies for the most sought-after jobs. Professionals who were women, members of ethnic minorities or working class were less likely to secure jobs and were often restricted in the type of jobs they held. Significantly, the members of disadvantaged groups who succeeded did so after long periods employed by the terrestrial broadcasters or after extended apprenticeships. This is worrying, given the increasing insecurity of the labour market in this sector.

show abstract

“…Networks provide exposure to people in positional power, increase market visibility, and enable workers to leverage a place within the network of decisionmakers. Such networks or 'cliques' (Manning and Sydow, 2007) are known for their potential to be both discriminatory and exclusionary (Christopherson, 2011;Smith and McKinlay, 2009), including in terms of gender, race and class. Kanter (1977, p. 48) argues that the exclusion of women from informal networks stems from 'homosocial behaviour' in that men prefer the company of other men.…”

Section: The Creative Industries and Sexual Harassmentmentioning

confidence: 99%

Sexual Harassment in the Creative Industries: Tolerance, Culture and the Need for Change

Hennekam¹,

Bennett²

2017

Gender, Work & Organization

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

The economic, social and cultural contributions of the creative industries are essential elements of many societies and their governments' policies. However, there is growing evidence that precarity, competition and lack of regulation within these industries is exacerbating inequalities with respect to gender, race and class. With a focus on gender and sexual harassment among female workers, this study involved 32 in‐depth interviews with women working in the Netherlands' creative industries. Data were analyzed using content analysis. Findings suggest that sexual harassment is prevalent, and many women considered it to be part of their occupational culture and career advancement. Four factors influenced this phenomenon: competition for work; industry culture; gendered power relations; and the importance of informal networks. Implications include the need for a climate of non‐tolerance, sector‐specific research and guidelines, sensitivity training and further work with unions and professional associations to provide worker protection strategies traditionally undertaken by organizations. The article concludes that effective sexual harassment prevention requires action at the individual, educational, sectoral and governmental levels, beginning with public conversations to convey the message that sexual harassment is never acceptable.

show abstract

Creative Labour: Content, Contract and Control

Cited by 29 publications

References 31 publications

Dealing with reality: Market demands, artistic integrity, and identity work in reality television production

Dealing with reality: Market demands, artistic integrity, and identity work in reality television production

Social Capital and Networks in Film and TV: Jobs for the Boys?

Sexual Harassment in the Creative Industries: Tolerance, Culture and the Need for Change

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About