The identity and self-perception of artists-managers

Abstract

Manager’s and artist’s professional identities seem to be opposite, but there are many indications that this understanding is not justified in reality. Despite the contradictions, these two identities can intersect. The paper aims to define the characteristics of the artists-managers’ identity. The object of the study was qualitative research (n = 22) conducted in the form of in-depth interviews with key informants from the international environment. The practical objective was to verify common and contradicted features of the artist’s and the manager’s identities among artists-managers to understand the possibilities of reducing the intra-psychic tensions and ways of fruitful paradoxical thinking among managers and negative consequences for personalities and organizations. The study reveals common characteristics between the artist’s and manager’s identities and describes artists-managers’ identity. Although artists-managers experience diversity between both identities, they do not see them as contrary; they use paradoxical thinking, being experts in using personal seemingly contradictory characteristics to achieve outstanding performance. Acting in paradoxical contexts and focusing on the positive aspects of seemingly contradictory personal qualities, they find nonstandard creative solutions. By trying to understand and implement their self-construction, there is the possibility to reduce the intra-psychic tensions and negative consequences of seemingly opposite identities or goals among individuals in organizations. There is a synergy between the manager’s and artist’s identities. Understanding the nature and attributes of artistic creativity, aesthetic theories and the phenomenon of artist-manager’s identity can be a valuable contribution to the practice of management and organizational life.

Does entrepreneurial factor influence creative identities' perception?

“…In the same context, the ability to connect contradictions by an artist is quite similar (difference of 1,74%) perceived by entrepreneurial (3.51) and nonentrepreneurial individuals (3.60) in halfway between neutral and rather important. Artist's identity appears in numerous supplementary areas of human activity, e.g., among teachers and lecturers (Bremmer et al, 2020;Dahlsen, 2015;Thornton, 2011), managers (Szostak & Sułkowski, 2020a, 2021b, 2021c. Nevertheless, the context is continuously explained as the most critical factor in self-identity and the artist's perception; the state of self-negotiation and identity formation by artists is substantially dependent on context (Luger, 2017).…”

“…They are not evident in distinction by society, and they usually occur not isolated. These identities are mostly merged in twosomes, like artist-manager, artist-leader, manager-entrepreneur (Szostak & Sułkowski, 2021c), or larger assemblies artist-manager-entrepreneur or creator-artist-manager (Szostak & Sułkowski, 2021a). Those complex identities may trigger complications, dilemmas, and tensions (Mathias & Williams, 2017;Mochalova, 2020;Schediwy et al, 2018;Warhurst & Black, 2017) but correspondingly can uncover different dimensions, skills, and potentials for individuals.…”

“…Researchers face a problem that the individualspossessing talent, personal characteristics, and deep-rooted professional status in the areas of entrepreneurship, management, leadership, creativity, or artistryreveal difficulties with the classification of who an entrepreneur is, who a manager is, who a leader is, who a creative person is, and who an artist is. These imprecise "definitions" of the certain identities make possible to separate the scientifically-described complex identities of artists-entrepreneurs (Bass, 2017;Bridgstock, 2012;Szostak & Sułkowski, 2021a) or artists-managers (Elstad & Jansson, 2020;Szostak & Sułkowski, 2020a, 2021c, 2020b. There is not much research trying to compare individual's perceptions of chosen issues by individuals with and without entrepreneurial identity.…”

Does Creativity Influence the Perception of Creative Identities?

“…The decision to investigate the identities of the creator, artist, manager, entrepreneur, and leader in one research was crucial because these identities are driving forces of progress and development and usually occur not alone. They are mainly combined in pairs, artist-manager, manager-entrepreneur, artist-leader (Szostak and Sułkowski, 2021c) or larger groups, creator-artist-manager, artist-manager-entrepreneur (Szostak and Sułkowski, 2021a).…”

“…Because of identity, being the steering power behind the personal and professional lifecycle of an individual, it is found that even the persons possessing talent, personal characteristics, and well established professional position in the above areas, have problems with the definition of who a creative person is, who an artist is, who a manager is, who an entrepreneur is, or who a leader is. These not sharp "definitions" of the mentioned identities led to separating the complex identities of artists-managers (Elstad and Jansson, 2020;Szostak and Sułkowski, 2020a;2021c;2020b) and artistsentrepreneurs (Bass, 2017;Bridgstock, 2012).…”