Page 38 - Design meets Business:An Ethnographic Study of the Changing Work and Occupations of Creatives
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                26 Design Meets Business
routines. In order to better understand how designers cope with this shift in material practices, this study explores not only what the responses of designers are but also why designers respond the way they do. In doing so, this study does not only contribute to organizational studies on design in better understanding the material practices of designers but also helps to enlighten how craftsmen cope with changes at work.
1.6.2. Interactions within occupations
Chapter 3 elaborates on Chapter 2 and explores how ‘interactions within occupations’ change as a consequence of collaborating with business. Occupations are a key part of organizational life (Abbott 1988; Bechky 2003b; 2011). Occupations are created, sustained and changed by groups of likeminded people, also referred to as “members of occupational commu- nity” [hereafter: occupational members], who are engaged in similar work tasks (Nelsen & Barley 1997), share a similar ethos (Fayard et al. 2017) and have similar “work schedules, job training, peer relations, career patterns, [and] shared symbols” (van Maanen & Barley 1984: 291). While occupations shape organizations, and vice versa organizational environments have impact on the development of occupations, occupations are not limited to the boundaries of organizations (Bechky 2011).
As a product of social processes, occupations change and emerge cons- tantly. The literature has identified various mechanisms that trigger occu- pational shifts, among which technology change (Nelson & Irwin 2014), an encroaching neighboring occupation (Goodrick & Reay 2011), insti- tutional pressures (Kellogg 2011) or increased heterogeneity inside occu- pations (Howard-Grenville et al. 2017). Moreover, occupations change because of both external and internal pressures. At the same time, scholars argued that for an occupation to survive, it is important for its members to develop an occupational mandate (Abbott 1988). An occupational mandate is a common understanding about ‘how work ought to be done’ (Nelsen & Barley 1997; Fayard et al. 2017). Yet, as occupations emerge from different constituencies, involving people from diverse backgrounds that often did not meet each other before, it can be difficult to establish common ground. Developing an occupational mandate can especially be difficult when an emerging occupation is growing and attracting a significant number of new members with different perspectives and performances (Reay et al. 2010). Recognizing that collaborations between creatives and business is chan- ging creative occupations, in Chapter 3 I further explore this and ask the question: How do members of an emergent and changing occupation define their occupational mandate?






























































































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