Page 205 - Design meets Business:An Ethnographic Study of the Changing Work and Occupations of Creatives

5. Discussion 193
2012), generating creative ideas during business dinners (Sturdy et al. 2006) or kickstarting new innovation trajectories (Henfridsson and Yoo 2013). Yet, the existing literature suggests that it is risky for ceremony masters to be liminal themselves (Czarniawska and Mazza 2003), as they do not have protection from other actors or structures, our study points at the opportunities it brings along, this dissertation research suggests that the position of ‘double liminality’ can help the creatives to cope with the quickly changing conditions of their work and claim expertise in diverse domains, something that more and more creative occupations (like design) are doing. Overall, this dissertation research extends the emerging body of literature on liminality in organizational environments. In particular, it helps to further understand how liminality is created, and how the conse- quences of liminality can be managed and shaped in practice.
5.2.3. Highlighting the relevance of craftsmanship as a lens to study creatives
This dissertation research alludes to the benefits of adopting craft- manship as a lens to study creatives. Adopting craftsmanship as a lens allows researchers to study creatives not only as people who engage in collaborative practices to generate new concepts or ideas (like in creativity studies, e.g. Harrison & Rouse 2015), develop new products (like in design studies, e.g. Ravasi & Stigliani 2012) or steer processes into novel directions (like in innovation studies, e.g. Henfridsson & Yoo 2013), but also as people who need to practice certain skills and feel a strong engagement with their work. In particular, it helps to better understand the role of emotions and material practices in the work of creatives.
To begin with, this dissertation research draws on the concept of crafts- manship to show that members of the occupation Service Design struggle with the new direction which their work is heading. As their work is beco- ming more abstract, they do not feel ‘involved’ in their work, lose motiva- tion and even experience heightened stress. They seek ways to have fun and sense delight again in their work through making and using artifacts. This chapter suggests that creatives, as they are craftsmen, are emotio- nally involved with their work. Even though I do not explicitly theorize the emotions of creatives in the rest of this dissertation research, the importance of emotions in the work of creatives can also be highlighted by turning to the other chapters. In Chapter 3, it is showed that the arrival of new members can lead to struggles about ‘what are best practices’ within the occupation of Service Design. Within occupations, people can feel ‘attacked’ by others who have different approaches and understandings of