Employment Systems in the Creative Industries A Perspective for Studying New Forms of Work and Organ

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Employment Systems in the Creative Industries A
Perspective for Studying New Forms of Work and
Organisation

• Axel Haunschild

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New Forms of Work and Organisation
Bureaucratic/Hierarchical Organisations hierarchic
al power bureaucratic procedures stability
clear boundaries
Joint Ventures Strategic Networks Dynamic
Networks Virtual Organisationsmobility
transient structures no clear boundaries
Internal Markets (Pay for Performance,
Customer-Supplier Relationships)
Neo-Taylorismflexibility, economisation, (self
control)
Standard Employment Relationship full-time,
permanent,social insurance, defined workplace
,
Part-time Work Self-employment Temporary Work
(Temporary Contracts, Temp Agencies)
Subcontractingtransient, market-based, flexible,
mobility
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Research Questions

• Under which conditions do flexible forms of
  employment become more widespread??
  institutional prerequisites
• What are organisational / HRM consequences of
  flexible work?
• What are the individual and societal consequences
  of flexible work?
• How can general changes in work-related and
  organisational discourse(s) and practices be
  characterised?

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Approach

• Studying Industries that are (already) marked by
  new / atypical / flexible forms of work and
  organisation
• Creative Industries(project work,
  interorganisational mobility, non-standard
  employment, knowledge work)
• Theatre

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Study

• First phase Qualitative, semi-structured
  interviews
• with 12 theatre artists working for one theatre
• with 5 representatives of interfirm institutions
  (union, employers' association,
  school/university, employment agency)
• Second phase (with Doris Eikhof) About 30
  Qualitative, semi-structured interviews in two
  more theatres and in a drama school
• Theory-based enquiry into perceptions, rules of
  the game and institutions
• Secondary Data

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German Theatre

• 150 public theatres in Germany
• History decentralized structure of princedoms
  and electorates
• Repertory theatres with resident theatre
  companies
• Ensemble contracts (temporary) and guests
  (self-employed)
• Collective Bargaining "Normalvertrag Bühne" for
  theatre artists (including actors, directors,
  stage designers, light designers, etc.).
  Prescribes minimum salary, periods of notice,
  severance pays

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Theatre as Project Work

• Product Complex good (artistic and
  non-artistic inputs, team production)
• Production processSingle projects in succession
  and in parallel (the curtain has to be lifted,
  project co-ordination)
• Production programmerepertoire
• Careersproject histories
• Industry Interorganizational mobility
  (boundaryless careers),transorganizational work
  but not dynamic project network

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Macro Level

• Theatre reveals relevance of
• Inter-organsational practices, institutions,
  standards, patterns, discourses
• Institutional embeddedness of organisational /
  HRM practices

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Macro-Concepts

• National Culture
• Business Systems
• Industries/Markets
• Organisational Fields
• Regional Clusters
• Societal Spaces
• Labour Markets
• Industrial/Professional Communities
• Employment Systems Focus on employment
  relationship, labour markets, HRM practices, and
  industrial relations

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Employment System

• Basic idea (David Marsden 1999)Efficient and
  enforceable rules that limit employers authority
  have to evolve
• Employment systems include
• Rules of job design, job boundaries and task
  assignment
• Institutions that enable and support the
  achievement, recognition, and transmission of
  skills and qualifications
• Rules that link performance and pay
• Inter-firm institutions, legal system
• Co-evolution of labour market characteristics,
  task assignment, education systems, industrial
  relations etc.
• Economic explanation evolutionary/institutional
  perspective

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Theatrical Employment System I

• Stability despite flexibility and mobility
  through
• Functional equivalent to occupational labour
  market(networks, reputation, rankings,
  professionalism)
• Hierarchy / authority relations(power asymmetry,
  wide area of acceptance, clear boundaries to
  other professions)
• Rules of the game / collective bargaining

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Theatrical Employment System II

• PLUS
• Intrinsic motivation Art for arts sake
• Internalised market behaviour
• Role of socialisation, Bohemian lifestyle
• ? Employment Rules in German Theatres An
  Application and Evaluation of the Theory of
  Employment Systems (British Journal of Industrial
  Relations, 2004)

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Self-employed Employees

• A new form of using and marketing labour
  powerVoß and Pongratz Arbeitskraftunternehmer
  (Entreployee)
• Self-control
• Self-economisation
• Economisation of life / blurring boundaries
  between work and private life
• ? Bringing Creativity to Market. Actors as
  Self-employed Employees (submission to Work,
  Employment and Societies Labour Process
  Conference 2005)
• ? Contingent Work The Problem of Disembeddedness
  and Economic Reembeddedness (Management Revue
  2004)

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Actors Perception of HRM

• What is impact on my market value?
• Do I have time and project autonomy?
• Conflicts concerning job and project assignments
  (cast, reputation)
• Conflicts between different jobs and projects
  (e.g. film vs. theatre)
• Conscious perception of leadership styles
  awareness of fact that employers make use of
  workers position in labour market

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HRM Consequences

• Contract partners are self-controlled,
  market-conscious workers (hardly committed and
  loyal to certain organisation ? offering
  career-relevant projects, balancing competition /
  team work)
• Managing relationships and networks
• Personalisation of HRM practices
• Managing boundaries (interorganisational
  mobility, inter-mediaries, considering
  lifestyles Rise of the Creative Class)
• ? Managing Employment Relationships in Flexible
  Labour Markets The Case of German Repertory
  Theatres (Human Relations, 2003 Personalführung
  2005)
• ? The Impact of Boundayless Careers on
  Organizational Decision Making (International
  Journal of Human Resource Management, 2003, with
  Kai H. Becker)

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Future Research I

• Employment systems other creative industries,
  international comparisons, industry comparisons
  (Football vs Theatre, EGOS 2005)
• What are creative industries / what is creative
  labour?
• Psychological contract ? social contract /
  embeddedness
• Organisational boundaries

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Future Research II

• How can general changes in work-related and
  organisational discourse(s) and practices be
  characterised?
• Organisational vs. Transorganisational Work
  Practices
• ? Transorganisational Work and Qualification
  (submission to Organization Studies)
• Lifestyles, (communities of) practices, milieus,
  social class ? new concepts for analysing
  transorganisational practices (Theories of
  Practice? Post-Marxism? Post-Structuralism?)
• Ethical and aesthetic dimensions of work practices