Today’s lecture was about conflicting identities in creative
industries. A sentence that does not say anything. You know the type of
lecturers that like to complicate a rather simple issue by utilization of difficult
terminology. After the chat about Bourdieu’s theories and the compulsory boring
stuff, I noticed that there actually is something interesting behind the topic.
So, this is basically the plot (a simplified version): You
have one organization (here Opera), in your organization works different
persons with different personalities. Your task is to manage the job environment
and internal as well as external relationships between groups of persons with
very big egos. Not so simple task, I
would say.
Imagine a bunch of artists – they are used to be in the spot
light. They are individualistic and sometimes even narcissistic. Most certainly
personalities collide and when doing something creative, artistic, everyone
believes that their work input and presence is the most important one. Or as in
the example Tanja Vilén took up during the lecture, artists, orchestra and
choir fight about the star role whereas the technical department couldn’t care
less; they are there in order to do their job. Administration is a bit lost
case; they are arbitrating between these extremities without clearly having
tools for it. It is a wonder if these childishly fighting “artist” can create anything
of value.
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| Picture from sweden.se |
But they can. Operas, theatres and ballets are the most “finest”
form of art, at least according to quite many people in my vicinity. Do the internal conflicts affect the
creativity or the outcome of the work in any way? In my opinion, no. But the
physical appearance or register affects how you are treated by other organization
members and that affects the way you see yourself. In my opinion, one’s
self-esteem and dignity affects the ability to perform – an actor not valuing
himself cannot completely throw himself into the role and give everything,
which naturally affects the whole performance. It is also a good question if
business can be both artistic and economical? The Finnish National Opera is a
non-profit company as many national theatres as well. This can be a bit
contradicting. In my opinion, money has little to do with creativity. Of course
every creative organization wants to attract customers and at least to some
extent the repertoire is affected by consumers, in profit seeking organizations
maybe a bit more than in governmentally sponsored organizations.
But is the issue so black and white. It popped into mind
during the lecture when I was listening to Vilén that maybe these kinds of
studies are a bit exaggerated. Isn’t it
so that every organization is hierarchical and have its own internal struggles
or conflicts. The question is not only about creative industries with big egos.
Think about hospitals. Or schools. The order of precedence is strict; everyone
one knows own position and sometimes the position is marked with external
symbols. In hospitals it is strictly regulated what is the color of the working
clothes – the practical nurses have different colors’ cloaks than the nurses.
Finally, even if the topic “conflicting identities in
creative industries” is interesting, it is maybe unnecessary to squeeze the
concept into one box, the creative industry. Naturally, it can be discussed
from that view point as well but it is important to bear in mind that sometimes
it is good to think outside the box. Whatever that means.
Information from article Glynn, M. 2000. When Cymbals Become Symbols: Conflict over
Organizational Identity Within a Symphony Orchestra. Organization science,
11(3), pp. 285-298
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