Page 110 - Design meets Business:An Ethnographic Study of the Changing Work and Occupations of Creatives

Abstract
This study explores how members of an emergent and changing occupa- tion define their occupational mandate. Existing research shows that for an occupation to grow, it is important to develop an occupational mandate that dictates what members of occupations ‘ought to do’. Yet, developing an occupational mandate is challenging as occupations emerge from differ- ent constituencies and might attract people from different backgrounds. Drawing on an ethnography of Service Design at the design firm Fjord that was in the midst of hiring new designers, this study offers insights into the intra-occupational struggles through which designers discover their occu- pational mandate. As Service Design is an emergent occupation without clearly-defined boundaries, designers experience ambiguity around what their core practices are. Inside the occupation, newcomers with a back- ground in business (‘business designers’) practice their work tasks differ- ently than longer serving designers (‘craft designers’). Especially, these two occupational communities interacted differently with time, space and clients in their work. In order to move forward despite these differences, the designers developed temporary settlements such as adapting to each other’s approach or developing a compromise. Our work contributes to organizational studies of occupations by demonstrating that due to con- stantly changing relations between occupational members, instability in occupations is unavoidable and the occupational mandate can be (re)nego- tiated at all times.